The Kinship Terms In Yongning Mosuo And Their Implications Of Changing Family Patterns

Nowadays,there are few ethnic groups in China which are inherited by the matrilineal system,such as the Mosuo people in Yongning township,NingLang yi autonomous county,LiJiang city,Yunnan province.The Yongning Mosuo as its unique system of matrilineal family,the marriage patterns of free visit of the two sexes,and the ethical concept of "respecting their mother and worshiping their daughter",which has gained much attention of scholars at home and abroad.Therefore,the unique kinship appellations and family forms are worth studying and discussing.Each culture has a set of names that indicate the type of kinship.These appellations and the usage rules constitute a culture of kinship terminology.The kinship terminology of human relations is manifested in the language of anthropology.[Zhu Bingxiang: "Social Anthropology",Wuhan: Wuhan University Press,August 2004,pp.105-106.]The title of the kinship is a map of the self-centered kinship-related world constructed by human beings,which determines the position of the individual in the whole family.The whole chain of relatives is further epitomized in the family,where marriage,property,inheritance,kinship and other closely related life issues will be involved.In order to maintain the continuation of the Mosuo matriarchal family,the Yongning Mosuo people will carry out "adoption,marrying and recruiting",and these acts can also cause changes in family form and kinship terms.With the rapid development of tourism brought about by the improvement of economic living conditions,the impact of different cultures of Chinese culture,changes in marriage policy and ideas,Yongning Mosuo people's marital forms,marriage and family concepts and the resulting family forms have undergone great changes.These changes and the resulting factors of these changes are further explored in this paper.Based on the author's fieldwork,Yongning Mosuo relatives appellation has narrowed the meaning of category,paternal relatives appellation terms are widely used in daily life,getting married has gradually become the main form of marriage,family shape tends to be the patriarchal family.However,the Mosuo matriarchal family is still the main form of the Mosuo people's family form in the well-preserved Mosuomatriarchal culture villages.The Yongning Mosuo people have a strong sense of identity and belonging to the matriarchal family.In maintaining social conventions for normal operation of the Mosuo society,the backbone of the Mosuo matriarchal family also cannot be ignored.In the face of the changes of the times and social development,the Yongning Mosuo people adopt flexible family forms and survival strategies to face various situations,so requiring concrete analysis.