A world without fathers or husbands

At the other end of the world, in the foothills of the Himalayas, in the south-west of China, a little-known ethnic group of 30,000 has been able to preserve its singular rituals and traditions throughout the ages : an astonishing feat of resistance on the part of the Moso culture... a "female kingdom" at an altitude of some 2,700 metres on the shores of Lake Lugu, where our Western conceptions have no purchase. In this enclave cut off from the world, the woman plays a primary role. The mother is the pillar of society, a matrilineal society, where only female ancestry is taken account, and the handing down of names and worldly goods is through the female line. Here the notion of the father is non-existent. Among the Moso, men and women do not live in couples. While strictly observing the taboo on incest, sexual relationships form and dissolve free from social constraints. In the absence of marriage and marital infidelity, this society has so radically ruled out possessiveness...