Walking marriage (Chinese: zou hun) is the Mosuo people's marriage-like partnership in which each partner keeps a separate residence in their own mother's household; the man visits the woman's home at night by her invitation and returns to his own home by morning. Children born of the arrangement stay with the mother's family, and the father carries no legal or cultural obligation to support them financially, though he may choose to give gifts. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Descent RuleSourced to the subject's own accountMatrilineal: walking marriage is practiced within Mosuo society, one of the few matrilineal societies in China, where inheritance passes through the female line and, in a walking marriage, the ancestral line runs through the mother's household, with children of the union residing in and belonging to the mother's family rather than the father's. 1 Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountDocumented among the Mosuo people of southwestern China. 1 Descent Rule
Descent Rule (category)Sourced to the subject's own account Connections
Associated With
Walking marriage, practiced by the Mosuo of southwestern China, occurs within a strongly matrilineal descent system in which children remain in the mother household and lineage.
In Rule Category
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Walking Marriage
WikipediaMatrilineal society sectionQuote, Matrilineal society section
In a walking marriage, the ancestral line is most important on the wife's side of the family and the children of the couple reside and belong to the wife's family household.
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Description
Mosuo society is widely described in popular accounts as a matriarchy because walking marriage lets children stay with their mother's family and property pass through the maternal line, but scholars studying the Mosuo note that political power tends to remain in the hands of men and that the terms matrilineal and matriarchal do not capture the full complexity of Mosuo social organization.
A dissenting reading, from an independent laneWikipedia: Mosuo, Wikipedia
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