Family and kinship structures in human societies

Family & Kinship (Anthropology)

Kinship in Chinese Culture and Matriarchy (Dominance of Women) among Chinese Families: Case Studies in Southwestern China and Taiwan

Anthropology, as the study of human life and culture, has developed through various studies and researches that have been conducted initially by Western social scientists. These researches have mainly centered on the "exotic" and native cultures of societies and nations located in the East, such as islands in the Pacific and countries in Asia and the Middle East. Although these studies have provided a Western-centric view of various cultures in the world, they have contributed to the development of theory and methodology in anthropology.

Anthropological studies often provide a description of features unique within the culture and analyze these features in the context of human life (in general) as perceived by the anthropologists (in this case, a Western-centric view of human life).

This paper discusses particular incidences of matriarchy being the prevalent cultural structure in an Eastern nation, China. Conducted by the anthropologists Lu Yuan, Sam Mitchell and Margery Wolf, these studies of two different cultures in China illustrates how societies can exist and assume values and traditions that is altogether different from the dominantly patriarchal societies and fixed kinship ties existing in most societies today. This paper posits that through the study of anthropology, cultures that have unique features and deviate from the normative structures of institutions within society (especially those who adopted the Western-centric view of what a society should be) have shown that their being different offers people (i.e., the outsiders) other perspectives in viewing what constitutes a society, which includes the values and traditions inherent in it.

In Lu Yuan and Sam Mitchell's study entitled, "Matrilineal kinship: walking marriage in China," the authors discuss about the powerful role that women play in the Mosuo tribe, located in the Luoshuri village in southwestern China. The Mosuo tribe provides a unique study of anthropology, since it has a social structure that deviates from the common notion of family that societies have in contemporary times. Instead of a family made up of a wife and husband with their children, Mosuo men and women do not engage in marriage, but do practice establishing sexual relations with each other. The absence of the tradition of marriage illustrates how women are able to maintain their autonomy from having a family life, and assumes primarily a role of being a mother to her children, but not as wife to the men she had sexual relations with.

The article brings into lucidity social tensions that emerge from family structures, of which the perpetuation of a patriarchal society emerges as the main issue. Apart from the dominance of males in the society, the absence of marriage and establishment of the nuclear family structure in the Mosuo tribe eliminates the occurrence of conflict between the woman and her husband's family. Furthermore, as an informant explains, absence of marriage in Mosuo cultivates a relationship that is "based on love...If a couple feels contented, they stay together. If they feel unhappy, they can go their separate ways. As a result, there is little fighting" (237). From the case of the Mosuo tribe, anthropologists were able to understand and know that the kind of culture that is distinct from the tribe exists, and offers an example of how family structures of kinship and marriage are not subsisted to by the tribe's members.

Analyzed from the perspective of Western social and cultural structures, the tradition of kinship among the Mosuo is categorized as "ancient," a stage of human societal development wherein matriarchy prevails and dominates. It is only with the emergence of Christianity in the history of human society where patriarchy emerged and developed. Thus, the persistence of the matriarchal structure of Mosuo society is considered by social scientists as a "living fossil," a reminder of the early history of human society during its initial stages of developing into a contemporary society. In effect, the Mosuo tribe characterizes the early stage of human civilization, in which "hypothetical "group marriages" of brothers and sisters to monogamy...the Mosuo, with its unusual kinship system, fits into this scheme..." (239).

The article ends with a suggestion that it is inevitable that Mosuo should remain uninfluenced with the modernization of communities happening in China today. With the pervasiveness of modern Western culture, even the Mosuo themselves consider the possibility that their non-traditional family and kinship structure will be altered to adapt to the normative traditions of marriage and family structure.

Of course, this commentary remains to be seen and witnessed to happen in the Mosuo community; nevertheless, the article brings into lucidity how, viewed from the perspective of Western paradigm of anthropology, cultures are analyzed in order to convince readers how the Mosuo culture is unique and different from them. This may be construed positively or negatively by the article's audience. People may consider the Mosuo culture as an example of how non-normative social behaviors are perpetuated and influence people over time. However, the uniqueness of the Mosuo culture may also elicit negative reactions among people who have rigidly conservative belief in marriage and notion of what a typical family should be (these insights are reflected when viewed from the Western perspective).

Similar with the Mosuo culture, the nature and structure of Taiwanese families in China shows how matriarchy is perpetuated despite the seemingly patriarchal nature of Taiwanese society. Through the concept of "uterine families," Margery Wolf discusses the how, despite the dominance of men in Taiwan, it is evident that ultimately, it is the women who maintain autonomy all throughout their lives. However, despite this autonomy, women also live a life of constant detachment from the family she establishes and later on leave, in pursuit of a new life.

Wolf elucidates on this point, explaining how the process of autonomy emerges as the woman is detached from her family to join her husband's family, only to become a temporary family member to it. Wolf states: "With the ritual slam of her father's door on her wedding day, a young woman finds herself quite literally without a family....She is an outsider, and for Chinese an outsider is always an object of deep suspicion" (243). This passage illustrates that despite the collective nature of Chinese society, women become underprivileged, mainly because they assume roles that puts them at a disadvantage -- that is, becoming a "temporary" member not only of her husband's family, but to her own family as well. In the words of Wolf, the temporariness of her role within the family makes her dependent "on her husband, her mother-in law's son, as her spokesman, and here is where the trouble begins" -- that is, the dominance of her husband, thereby resulting to the persistence of patriarchy (244).