What would the days be like without fathers? Maybe not so bad, according to experts on the Mosuo culture of the Chinese Himalaya.

The women of this matrilineal society shun marriage and raise their kids in homes with their entire extended families—but no dads.

By most accounts, children seem to do just fine under the arrangement. "They are a society that we know hasn't had marriage for a thousand years, and they've been able to raise kids successfully," said Stephanie Coontz, family studies professor at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.更多信息請訪問：http://www.24en.com/

Men of the Mosuo, who live around Lugu Lake on the border between Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces, do help to raise kids—just not their own, with whom the men typically have only limited relationships. Instead the men help look after all the children born to their own sisters, aunts, and other women of the family.

Rather than "one father with a kid, it will be four or five uncles. That [father] role is shared among a number of people, and these are very large extended families," explained John Lombard, director of the Lugu Lake Mosuo Cultural Development Association.

The unusual parenting arrangement makes genetic sense, in terms of extending the family line—and many Mosuo men actually think of it that way, "If you [father] a child with another woman, you can never be absolutely sure that the child really shares your genes," he said. "But if your sister has a child, you can be 100 percent sure that the kid shares some of your genes." Lombard said.

The women of the Mosuo's agricultural villages head the households, make business decisions, and own property, which they pass on to their matrilineal heirs. In the unique Mosuo tradition called the walking marriage, women invite men to visit their rooms at night—and to leave in the morning. Women may also change partners as often as they like, and promiscuity carries no social stigma.

The practice has made the Mosuo famous, particularly to male Chinese tourists, many of whom see the walking marriages as evidence of sexual liberation and wanton lust, experts say.

Though there are tourist-oriented brothels in Mosuo villages, most are staffed with non-Mosuo women and are considered shameful by the Mosuo, according to the the Lugu Lake Mosuo Cultural Development Association Web site.

"I think sometimes the media gets carried away with the possibility that the women can have all these husbands," said filmmaker Xiaoli Zhou, who produced and reported the 2006 documentary on the Mosuo, The Women's Kingdom. In fact, most Mosuo women don't change walking-marriage partners very frequently. And they rarely carry on more than one romantic relationship at a time. "Many of the women I interviewed had only had one or two relationships in their lives," Zhou said.

The lack of live-in fathers shouldn't be taken as evidence that the Mosuo don't value family life, said Lombard, of the Lugu Lake Mosuo Cultural Development Association. In fact, they value it above all other relationships—particularly those founded on the sometimes fickle feelings of male-female amour, he said.

Extended families of siblings, uncles, aunts, and others are said to be extremely stable, Lombard added. For example, there are no divorces to destablize the families. And even the death of a child's biological father has little effect on the family, given the father's distance from the family and the extensive support network in the household.

Brent Huffman, co-producer of The Women's Kingdom, said, "The society does kind of create this question: Are fathers really necessary? It's hard to think of in Western society, but there, it works."

從大多數方面看來，摩梭族的孩子都生活得好好的。家庭研究專家史提芬妮·昆茨（Stephanie Coontz，華盛頓州奧林匹亞市州立常青樹大學教授）說：“已延續上千年的摩梭族是一個沒有婚姻的社會，但是人們卻有辦法把孩子撫養成人?！?/P>

摩梭人生活在云南省和四川省交界處的瀘沽湖一帶，那里的男子在養兒育女問題上事實上也確有幫助——但他們所養育的偏偏不是自己的孩子，沒什么血緣關系。相反，這些男子幫助養育的孩子都是自己的姐妹、姨媽、姑媽及家族內的其他女人生的孩子。

對此現象，瀘沽湖摩梭族文化發展協會會長約翰·拉姆巴德（John Lombard）是這么解釋的：“這個社會不是一個父親一個孩子那么簡單，而是一個孩子可能有四五個叔叔伯伯。在那里，父親的作用是由很多男人來共同承擔的，這樣一來，家族的延伸面就變得十分廣泛?！?/P>

就家族的延續而言，這么養育孩子反而有遺傳學意義，而摩梭族的男子的確就是這么看的。拉姆巴德解釋說：“在摩梭族，如果一個男人以父親的角色和一個女人共同養育一個孩子，那他永遠都不敢肯定這個孩子和他有沒有血緣關系。但是，如果孩子是自己的姐妹生下來的，就能100%肯定孩子和他有一定的血緣關系?！?/P>

在摩梭族農村，婦女自主安排并承擔一切生計，她們擁有財產權，并有權把財產傳給母系繼承人。當地有一個十分獨特的走婚習俗，也就是到了晚上，女子可以把男子請到家里來過夜，第二天一早，男子便一走了之。女子是可以隨時隨意更換男子的，完全不用背負放蕩的名聲。

專家們認為，摩梭族的這一習俗早就聲名遠播，而中國的男性游客往往會想入非非，他們中有很多人把走婚習俗當作是性解放和濫交合理的明證。

瀘沽湖摩梭族文化發展協會的官方網站指出，在摩梭族的村子里，也有一些為了吸引游客而開辦的妓院，可充斥其中的女子并非摩梭族人，這些色情業女子在摩梭人眼里是十分無恥的。成都翻譯

電影制片人周曉麗（音）2006年曾拍攝反應摩梭族文化的紀錄片《女兒國》，她說：“我覺得一些媒體只專注于大肆炒作摩梭族婦女在選擇男人方面的隨意性，使人誤以為只要女人喜歡，所有的男人都能變成她的丈夫?！睂嶋H上，大多數摩梭族女子是不會頻繁更換走婚對象的，在同一時間里物色一個以上情愛關系的女子是十分罕見的。周說：“在我所采訪過的摩梭族女子中，她們大多數一生只有一兩個性伴侶?！?A >成都翻譯

瀘沽湖摩梭族文化發展協會的拉姆巴德說，生活中缺少父親，并不能因此說明摩梭人就不重視家庭生活的價值。他認為，相反，他們會把那種家庭關系看得高于其他一切關系，特別是某些短命的男歡女愛關系，在摩梭人眼里就更不值得一提了。成都翻譯

拉姆巴德還說，通過姊妹、叔伯、姑姨及其他親屬而延伸出去的家族，反而非常穩固，例如，這樣的家族就不會因為離婚問題而使家庭變得不穩定。而由于有血緣關系的父親往往離孩子很遠，因此即使這個父親死亡了，對家族也不會有什么影響，相反，一個沒有父親的家庭的全部生活反而能夠得到整個家族的廣泛支持。