The Asian Conference on Arts and Humanities 2023 Official Conference Proceedings

Abstract

The Mosuo people live in the mountainous region of southwest China, on the border of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, in the Lugu Lake area. This group has been under-represented in the field of research which often resulted to exclusion of some social services. Marriage has often been the subject of study among anthropologist all over the world. This study investigates the construction of marriage, familial patterns of Mosuo rural community and analyze their special marital status, practices, and functions of marriage using Matrilineal system theory. This research utilized a qualitative approach through ethnographic study, to enable the researchers to identify some unexpected issues that may arise during data collection. In this research, a theoretical paradigm has been established as a frame of reference in interpreting research findings. The researchers employ ethnographic methods to understand the phenomena on how Mosuo families interact within their proximal environment. The researchers played the role as virtual participant observers for a couple of weeks and conducted unstructured interviews, focus groups, and textual analysis to qualitatively collect anthropological data. The expected outcome of this study is a systematic analysis of the family structure and marriage system of the Mosuo people from the socio-anthropological perspective and can be used by future academics in the field of Sociology and Anthropology as their frame of reference on the changes of marriage patterns and norms. In addition, this may improve the record of racial and ethnic groups in China for societal awareness and future involvement of Mosuo community for policy formulation and practices implications.