opalescent
Active member
As an aside, I wouldn't categorize the Mosuo as being polyamorous.
They define and organize family very differently The married couple is not the foundation of the society. Instead the maternal line - a mother, her children, her brothers and sisters, her sister's children -forms the basic family unit. There is no marriage as we understand it. How the Mosuo structure romantic/sexual relationships springs out of that fundamental difference.
I would argue that our concepts of monogamy and polyamory are based on the married couple being the foundation of Western 'family'. Without that basis, I would argue that the Mosuo are not 'non-monogamous' as we understand it. Mosuo woman could have just one lover at a time, or her entire life. But that does not make her monogamous - it just means she has one lover at that point. Being non-monogamous requires the idea that sexuality 'should be' confined within a couple if only to disagree with it. After all non-monogamy is basically 'not monogamous'. It is defined by what it is not. Mosuo culture doesn't have that expectation.
They define and organize family very differently The married couple is not the foundation of the society. Instead the maternal line - a mother, her children, her brothers and sisters, her sister's children -forms the basic family unit. There is no marriage as we understand it. How the Mosuo structure romantic/sexual relationships springs out of that fundamental difference.
I would argue that our concepts of monogamy and polyamory are based on the married couple being the foundation of Western 'family'. Without that basis, I would argue that the Mosuo are not 'non-monogamous' as we understand it. Mosuo woman could have just one lover at a time, or her entire life. But that does not make her monogamous - it just means she has one lover at that point. Being non-monogamous requires the idea that sexuality 'should be' confined within a couple if only to disagree with it. After all non-monogamy is basically 'not monogamous'. It is defined by what it is not. Mosuo culture doesn't have that expectation.