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Old 19th June 2007, 09:27 AM   #108
Wolfman
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Originally Posted by JJM 777 View Post
The allegory is that when the working day ends at 16 o'clock, many people think it's nice to have a place to go -- "home" -- full of your personal property, memories and photos, and all that silly stuff from the past, which belong to you and no one else.

Many people also think that it is nice that the home where you go after work is furnished with a spouse -- in the optimal case, a person whom you met in high school, and who represents to you even more memories than all the property that you own.

To make it even merrier, there might be some children in this home -- not just any brats, but indeed your own children, on behalf of whom you have made innumerable economical and other sacrifices since their infancy, childhood, teenage...

Property would be a misleading word. I would speak of "rights to your own life history". This is what makes you most happy or potentially hurts you most.
I think that you are guilty of ethnocentrism here...of assuming that what you consider to be 'proper' or 'normal' is standard for everyone else. I in no way intend to state or imply that your own feelings on the subject are wrong. If you lived in the Mosuo culture, you would obviously not be fulfilled.

However, most of the Mosuo feel exactly the same way about your culture. Ask a Mosuo woman if she prefers walking marriages or 'real' marriages, and almost every one of them will say they prefer walking marriages. Why? Because if they get married, they have to deal with a whole new family that they don't know, and have no previous relationship with. Because they lose stability -- if the marriage doesn't work out, they could lose half their belongings, they could lose their child, etc. In their own culture, these things are non-issues.

I'd really encourage you to read more of what's been written here, first...much of what you're asking has already been addressed, and some of your questions seem to be based on misunderstandings that are entirely unnecessary.

In short -- if you're not going to take the time to read what's been written, and understand it, why should I take the time to answer questions that have already been addressed? I don't intend to take on too adversarial a tone here...but I can't take your inquiries as being terribly serious or sincere, if you can't take the time to understand what it is you are discussing.
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