男人永远不是老大的西藏部落

Imagine a society without fathers; without marriage (or divorce); one in which nuclear families don’t exist. Grandmother sits at the head of the table; her sons and daughters live with her along with the children of those daughters following the maternal bloodline. Men are little more than studs sperm donors who inseminate women but have more often than not little involvement in their children’s upbringing.

设想一个没有父亲的社会。不结婚（不离婚），家里的不存在核心成员（父亲）的社会。奶奶的家庭地位是最重要，她的儿女们与女儿的孩子们，按照母系血缘与她生活在一起。男人们更像是负责令女人怀孕的种马，很少参与抚养孩子。

This progressive feminist world – or anachronistic matriarchy as skewed as any patriarchal society depending on your viewpoint – exists in a lush valley in Yunnan south-west China in the far eastern foothills of the Himalayas. An ancient tribal community of Tibetan Buddhists called the Mosuo they live in a surprisingly modern way: women are treated as equal if not superior to men; both have as many or as few sexual partners as they like free from judgment; and extended families bring up the children and care for the elderly.

这个女权主义世界--或者你可以认为，这是与父系社会一样过时的母系社会。处于中国西南部云南省，位于喜马拉雅山脉的东部的一个山谷中。源于藏传佛教徒名为摩梭的古老部落，她们有着惊人的现代生活方式，女人被视为与男人平等的，男女双方都拥有的或多或少的性伴侣，他们依照自己的喜好做决定。增加家庭成员，抚养孩子并赡养老人。

But is it as utopian as it seems? And how much longer can it survive?

这像不像一个乌托邦？这种生活方式，还能持续多久呢？（走婚的摩梭族人）

Choo Waihong set about finding out. A successful corporate lawyer from Singapore she left her job in 2006 to travel. Having trained and worked in Canada the US and London she felt drawn to visit China the country of her ancestors. After reading about the Mosuo she decided to take a trip to their picturesque community – a series of villages dotted around a mountain and Lugu Lake – as many tourists do. But something beyond the views and clean air grabbed her.

朱伟鸿（音译）开始着手寻找这些问题的答案。她是新加坡一位成功的公司律师，于2006年辞职后开始旅行。在加拿大、美国、伦敦培训和工作过后，她产生了游览中国的兴趣——那个她祖先的国度。在读到有关摩梭的资料后，她决定去拜访那个散落在大山中如画般的社区，并像许多外国游客一样游览泸沽湖。但一些美好景色和清新空气之外的东西深深吸引了她。

“I grew up in a world where men are the bosses” she says. “My father and I fought a lot – he was the quintessential male in an extremely patriarchal Chinese community in Singapore. And I never really belonged at work; the rules were geared towards men and intuitively understood by them but not me. I’ve been a feminist all my life and the Mosuo seemed to place the female at the centre of their society. It was inspiring.”

“我成长于一个男性主导的世界”，她说，“父亲和我经常吵架，他是极重父权的新加坡华人社区里的一个典型男性。我在工作中从来没有归属感，所有规则都面向男性，且能被他们男性的思维直观理解，而非像我这样的女性。我一直是一个女权主义者，摩梭似乎将女性置于他们社会的中心。这很让人振奋。”