Artifact 2 discusses the gender roles and patrilineal based culture as seen in China and compares and contrasts it to the only remaining matrilineal culture found in China, the Mosuo. This artifact goes in depth on the bases for China’s patrilineal society and it’s implications today after millenniums of traditions.

China has always been an agricultural based society and it has required it’s people to do labor intensive based work. This combined with the practice of female foot binding contributed to  a very distinctive gap between the roles of male and female and how the society as a whole viewed them. The structure of Chinese society mitigated any potential resistance to state power. Under this system men were rewarded simply for being men and women had all power stripped from them and helpless and truly believed that things were supposed to be this way. This understanding came after thousand of years of tradition and despite laws and regulations in place today the differences from China today and China 150 years ago is somewhat less significant than might be expected.

In Chinese culture a male son is prefered over all. There are many ceremonies that only a son can perform, they carry on the family name and  get payed more to help support the family all while women’s pay is given to the husband or father, the are looked at as child bearers and housewives, the would be forced into child marriage. This alone created a feeling of required obedience to the male. Even Confucius preached obedience to Emperor, son to father, and woman to man and because of this, male dominated society became what was expected. While all of this was the normal in the vast majority of China there was another culture in China that varied extraordinarily, the Mosuo of China.

In Mosuo society gender roles are defined very differently. Woman still learn the same basic household skills, cooking, cleaning, livestock care, and weaving while men primarily focus on food production. This is very similar to the greater China, but what is so vastly different is that Mosuo families define their lineage by the females side of the family. Males and females practice “walking marriages” which replaces marriages in the typical interpretation. They are essential relationships that are very fluid rather than the strict obedience based relationship that marriage in China affords. Again, women hold the power in these relationships as it is the male that embarks on these nightly visits and must then leave in the morning. At it’s very core Mosuo culture is not entirely different from the rest of China, however, it’s distinctions are of note and provide a unique way of life that can not be found anywhere else in China.

Looking at China as a whole it is interesting to see the two different structures with regards to gender roles. Even more interesting is it to look at the reasons behind it. Thousands of years of philosophical text and code lead to where China is today. Great improvements have been made in the last 50-100 years as far as equalling the gap between males and females, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.

Cadet Jonathan Verhoff

BI218x

VMI Class of 2017

HR: None other than handout provided in lecture