瀘沽湖女兒國 中國最後的母系社會
LUGU LAKE, China — A young man clad in a white shirt, black pants and red belt suddenly scrambled up the side of a log house and slid feet first into a second-story latticed window.
中國瀘沽湖——一名身穿白襯衫、黑褲子和紅腰帶的年輕男子突然沿着木屋側面爬上去，從二層的花格窗躍入房間。
“This is how Mosuo men would climb into the `flower room' of the women,” Ke Mu explained to visitors as the triumphant swain stuck his head out the window of the flower room, or private bedroom, and waved his hat.
“摩梭男人就是這樣爬進女人的‘花房’，”可木（音）對遊客解釋稱。這名得意洋洋的情郎把頭伸出花房的窗外，揮舞着帽子。“花房”即爲女性的私人臥室。
It was morning in the lakeside village of Luoshui here in southwestern China. On a narrow side street, dusty from hotel construction nearby, a group of young workers, including Ke, 18, was preparing for another day of cultural pageantry at the Mosuo Folk Museum.
洛水村位於中國西南部的瀘沽湖畔。早晨，在一條狹窄的小巷中，附近在建的旅店瀰漫着灰塵，一羣年輕的工作人員又在爲摩梭民俗博物館的文化盛典做準備，其中包括18歲的可木。
Their task is to showcase the traditions of the Mosuo, a minority ethnic group said to be the country's last matrilineal society, where children take their mothers' surnames and daughters are preferred to sons.
他們的任務是展示摩梭人的傳統。這個少數民族據稱是中國的最後一個母系社會，孩子跟母親姓，女兒比兒子更受歡迎。
A fascination with such traditions has led to a booming tourism industry in this once-isolated region.
這種傳統極具吸引力，促使這個曾經很偏遠的地區成爲旅遊勝地。
Lured by the promise of spectacular natural beauty and exotic cultural experiences, hundreds of thousands of visitors, mostly Chinese, are making the journey to Lugu Lake, nestled on a plateau in the mountains between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces.
在壯麗的自然景觀及獨特的文化體驗的吸引下，成千上萬的遊客來到位於雲南與四川省交界山區高原的瀘沽湖旅遊，其中大部分是本國遊客。
Those numbers are expected to rise with the opening of a local airport this month and later an expressway connecting Lugu Lake to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan.
隨着當地的機場在本月開放使用，以及隨後連接瀘沽湖及四川省會成都的高速公路的開通，這些數據預計會繼續攀升。
In response, a number of family-run hotels have popped up along the lake's pristine blue waters. Visitors can watch residents perform traditional dances in colorful costumes and can take boat rides on the lake as young Mosuo men serenade them with love songs in Naru, the Mosuo language.
爲了迎接客人，瀘沽湖湛藍的湖水旁突然冒出了很多家庭經營的旅店。遊客們可以觀看當地居民身穿色彩斑斕的服裝表演傳統舞蹈，可以乘船遊湖，欣賞摩梭青年男子用摩梭人的語言納汝演唱情歌。
All around the village are signs that read, “Welcome to the Kingdom of Daughters.”
村莊周圍有很多“歡迎來到女兒國”的標語。
Lively as its traditions seem, however, the Mosuo community is facing a crisis. As its interaction with the wider society increases, residents and outside experts fear that the group's unique cultural practices are facing a grave threat.
雖然這裏的傳統看起來充滿活力，但摩梭社會正面臨一場危機。隨着與外界互動的增加，當地居民及外部專家都擔心，摩梭人獨特的文化習俗面臨嚴重的威脅。
Experts say the population of Mosuo in the Lugu Lake region, estimated to be about 40,000, is decreasing as more young people marry outside the group or move to larger cities for work. And without a written language, Mosuo culture is particularly vulnerable to disappearing.
專家表示，估計瀘沽湖地區的摩梭人口大約爲4萬，隨着越來越多的年輕人與族羣外的人通婚，或者前往大城市工作，這一數字在不斷減少。由於沒有書面文字，摩梭文化特別容易消失。
Even within the community, young Mosuo are increasingly choosing marriage over the foundation of Mosuo culture: the centuries-old practice of tiesese (pronounced tee-say-say). Known in Mandarin as zouhun, or walking marriage, tiesese is an alternative to matrimony in which men visit women at night to fulfill the need for procreation and sexual gratification. Traditionally, a Mosuo woman might have several tiesese relationships during her life, sometimes simultaneously. Though this has changed as outside values of monogamy and lifetime partnership seep in.
甚至在摩梭社會內部，年輕人也越來越多地在選擇婚姻，而非作爲摩梭文化基礎的延續了幾個世紀的走婚習俗。走婚不同於傳統婚姻形式，男性在夜間來到女性家中，滿足生殖及性需求。傳統上，一名摩梭女性可能一生會有幾段走婚關係，有時是同時保持。不過，隨着外界的一夫一妻制及終生伴侶的價值觀的滲入，這種傳統有所改變。
“It would be great to get married one day,” said Lu Ru, 34, who is in a tiesese relationship. “Can you imagine loving someone that much?”
“如果有一天能結婚，那很好，”處於走婚關係中的34歲的魯如（音）說。“你能想象那麼深愛某個人的感覺嗎？”
With tiesese, sex is kept separate from family, and men and women are generally expected to spend their lives in the houses in which they were born. As a result, sexual partners rarely occupy the same dwelling. Household harmony is valued above all else, including conjugal relationships.
在走婚關係中，性愛與家庭分離開來，男性和女性通常會在他們出生時的住所度過一生。因此，性伴侶很少生活在同一屋檐下。家庭和睦高過一切，包括婚姻關係。
In traditional Mosuo culture, family life is structured around the basic social unit, known as the “grand household,” in which children are raised by their mother and her side of the family. And while children typically know their biological fathers, maternal uncles are responsible for taking on the paternal role, helping to raise and provide for their sisters' children.
在傳統的摩梭文化中，家庭生活圍繞基本的社會單位“大家庭”展開。在大家庭中，孩子由母親及母親一方的親人撫養長大。雖然孩子通常知道他們的生父是誰，但舅舅負責扮演父親角色，幫助撫養其姐妹的孩子。
Men stay with their mothers, and the several generations live in the grand household together.
男性與母親住在一起，幾代人生活在一個大家庭中。
According to Chuan-Kang Shih, an expert on the Mosuo and an anthropology professor at the University of Florida, the system is underpinned by a fundamental belief that women are more capable than men, mentally and even physically. The Mosuo also believe that everything people value in the world came from a woman, not a man. All male deities are secondary to their patron goddess.
研究摩梭人的專家、佛羅里達大學(University of Florida)人類學教授施傳剛(Chuan-Kang Shih)表示，這套體系的基礎在於一種基本信條，即女性在心智乃至身體上都強於男性。摩梭人還認爲，世界上人類所珍視的一切均源於一名女性，而不是男性。所有男性神靈都低於他們的守護女神。
“The system makes so much sense when you think about the overall ways in which family systems have to navigate between sexual desire, stability, domesticity and claims for children,” said Judith Stacey, a professor of sociology at New York University who has written about the Mosuo.
紐約大學社會學教授朱迪絲·斯塔賽(Judith Stacey)表示，“想想家庭制度需要在性慾、穩定、家庭生活和孩子的歸屬問題方面進行協調的方式，就會覺得這個體系非常說得通。”斯塔賽一直在撰寫有關摩梭人的文章。
“But it depends on a lack of mobility, which is why now, with all of this inequality as well as economic and geographic mobility, it can't survive as a system,” Stacey said.
“但這取決於流動性的缺乏。就是因爲這個原因，隨着各種不平等及經濟和地域流動的加強，這個體系現在無法維持，”她說。
According to historical accounts, life in the Mosuo community was relatively stable for hundreds of years. Starting in the Yuan dynasty, which ruled China from 1271 to 1368, the Mosuo were governed by a native chieftain system with a rigid social hierarchy. While they lived alongside several other ethnic groups who practiced marriage, almost all Mosuo continued to practice tiesese.
根據史料記載，數百年來，摩梭社會的生活相對穩定。摩梭人從元朝（1271年至1368年）開始實行土司制度，遵從嚴格的社會等級。雖然他們與實行婚姻制度的其他幾個少數民族比鄰而居，但幾乎所有摩梭人都延續走婚傳統。
That changed in 1956, when the chieftain system came to an end and the Mosuo were incorporated into the recently established Communist system. Under Communist rule, the social ranks were abolished and the Mosuo were subject to continuing efforts to change what the Communists saw as their “backward marriage customs.”
這種情況在1956年發生了改變。當時土司制度走向終結，摩梭人納入了確立不久的共產主義制度。在共產黨的統治下，社會等級被廢除，摩梭人被迫努力改變共產黨員眼中的“落後婚俗”。
These efforts culminated in 1975 with an official “one husband, one wife” campaign, which required Mosuo sexual partners to marry and live under the same roof.
這些努力在1975年達到頂峯。當時官方開展“一夫一妻制”運動，要求摩梭性伴侶結婚，在同一屋檐下生活。
Since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, the government largely receded from everyday life among the Mosuo. But experts say the increased scrutiny left many members of the group with a conflicted attitude toward tiesese.
自1976年文化大革命結束以來，政府基本上從摩梭人的日常生活中退出。但專家表示，日益加強的關注致使很多摩梭人對走婚持有矛盾的態度。
“In the late 1980s, the Mosuo were either very defensive or denied the existence altogether of the so-called walking marriage,” Shih said. “Then in the mid-1990s, when tourism began in the Lugu Lake area, they began to see it as capital to attract tourists, and they started to boast about it.”
“在80年代末，摩梭人或是有很強的戒備心，或是乾脆否認有所謂‘走婚’的存在，”施傳剛說。“然後在90年代中期，當瀘沽湖的旅遊業開始發展時，他們開始將它視作吸引遊客的資本，開始宣揚。”
