A common trend dominating pop culture of the West is the emergence of exclusively women-only groups, who refer to themselves as tribes, dress as gypsies from the 60s, worship Egyptian symbolism, bathe in crystals under the moonlight and worship the winter and summer solstice. These are modern working women with powerful and high paying jobs, so what is this all about?
主导西方流行文化的一个共同趋势是只有女性的群体的出现，他们自稱是部落，穿得像60年代的吉普賽人，崇拜埃及象征主义，在月光下沐浴水晶，崇拜冬至和夏至。 这些是拥有强大且高薪工作的现代女性，那么这一切是怎么回事呢？
A resurgence of the women’s liberation movement? Or as they put it, a celebration of the feminine and the welcoming of the feminine side to the masculine. What exactly is it that these 30-something women of the West so desire? What is it about paganism of the past that they seek to rekindle? Perhaps they need not look further than southern China, to learn a thing or two about ancient feminine wisdom.
妇女解放运动的复兴？ 或者正如他们所说，庆祝女性，并欢迎女性的一面加入男性。 西方这些30多岁的女性究竟渴望什么？ 他们试图重新点燃过去的异教是什么？ 也許他們不需要比中國南方更遠的地方，才能學到一兩件關於古代女性智慧的東西。
Picture a world where men are viewed as equal to women, a world where men are expected to satisfy a woman’s sexual needs and be gone by dawn.
想象一下一个男人被视为与女人平等的世界，一个男人被期望满足女人的性需求并在黎明前离开的世界。
Can you imagine a world where the women command who, what, where, when and how many men she wishes, and is not stigmatised by it. Where women make the decisions, call the shots, control the assets and live separately from men?
你能想象一个女人命令谁、什么、在哪里、什么时候和多少个男人，并且不被污名化的世界吗？ 女性在哪里做出决定，决定一切，控制资产，与男性分开生活？
At the foot of the Himalayas, situated in the dense, green lands of bordering Sichuan and Yunnan, lives the ancient Mosuo (摩梭) tribe, who refer to themselves as Na. The Mosuo have become one of China’s most famous ethnic groups, due to their very way of being.
在喜马拉雅山脚下，位于与四川和云南接壤的茂密的绿色土地上，居住着古老的摩梭（摩梭）部落，他们自称Na。 摩索人因其存在方式而成为中国最著名的民族之一。
Made up of approximately 40,000 people, they mainly live in the Yongning region, which is situated around Lugu Lake, on the Northwest Yunnan Plateau. Since the 1980s, their way of living shot to fame, which has unfortunately opened them up to outsider criticism, speculation, influence and vulnerability.
他们由约4万人组成，主要居住在云南西北高原鹿谷湖周围的永宁地区。 自20世纪80年代以来，他们的生活方式一举成名，不幸的是，这使他们受到外人的批评、猜测、影响和脆弱性。
Considered one of the world’s last matriarchal societies, that which has been criticised and sensationalised the most is the Mosuo practice of a “walking marriage”, which has been interpreted by many visiting Chinese as, “free love”, “primitive” and “promiscuous”.
被认为是世界上最后的母权社会之一，最受批评和耸人听闻的是莫苏奥的“行走婚姻”习俗，许多来访的中国人将其解释为“自由爱情”、“原始”和“濫交”。
A walking marriage affords the Mosuo woman responsiblity for household and financial decisions. She manages the money and jobs of each family member, and chooses which man shall share her bed and for how long. If a man impregnates her, after the child is born, her brothers will step forward to help raise the child, and the biological father relinquishes all responsibility and returns home to look after his sister’s children, while the parents are left to maintain a sexual relationship based on mutual attraction, if they so desire.
行走的婚姻让莫索妇女对家庭和财务决策负责。 她管理每个家庭成员的金钱和工作，并选择哪个男人应该和她同床共枕，以及多长时间。 如果一个男人让她怀孕，孩子出生后，她的兄弟们会站出来帮助抚养孩子，亲生父亲放弃所有责任，回家照顾他姐姐的孩子，而父母如果愿意，可以保持基于相互吸引的性关系。
The grandmother is the head of the house and shall make the final decision on most things. When daughters come of age they are given a private room and after she finishes puberty, she may begin seeing men. None of this is frowned upon or considered promiscuous by anyone in the community; it is just the way it is.
祖母是家主，应该对大多数事情做出最终决定。 当女儿成年后，她们会得到一个私人房间，在她完成青春期后，她可能会开始和男人见面。 社区中的任何人都不屑一顾或认为这些都是滥交的；事情就是这样。
As idealistic as this sounds, scholars have countered all sides of the argument. Author of “Quest for Harmony”, Chuan-Kang Shih, says that this system was put in place to ensure marriage came secondary, as the priority was placed on family, sex and reproduction. Cai Hua, in his book, “A Society without Fathers or Husbands: The Na of China”, points out an important historical fact that their social organisation has traditionally been feudal, with a small nobility controlling a larger peasant population.
这听起来很理想化，但学者们反驳了争论的所有方面。 《和谐的探索》的作者Chuan-Kang Shih说，建立这种制度是为了确保婚姻是次要的，因为优先考虑家庭、性和生殖。 蔡华在他的《没有父亲或丈夫的社会：中国的Na》一书中指出了一个重要的历史事实，即他们的社会组织传统上是封建的，少数贵族控制着更多的农民人口。
“The Mosuo nobility practiced a ‘parallel line of descent’ that encouraged cohabitation, usually within the nobility, in which the father passed his social status to his sons, while the women passed their status to their daughters. Thus, if a Mosuo commoner female married a male serf, her daughter would be another commoner, while her son would have serf status”. Cai theroises that the matriarchal system of the Mosuo lower classes was enforced by the nobility to minimise threats to their power.
“莫索贵族实行’平行血统’，鼓励同居，通常在贵族内部，其中父亲将他的社会地位传给儿子，而妇女将身份传给女儿。 因此，如果Mosuo平民女性与男性农奴结婚，她的女儿将是另一个平民，而她的儿子将拥有农奴身份。” Cai认为，Mosuo下层阶级的母权制制度是由贵族强制执行的，以尽量减少对其权力的威胁。
The more the world learns of the Mosuo, the more it imposes its own ideals onto the tribe. It is also true that its traditions may not sustain the happiness and satisfaction of the people for much longer, as China progresses into a more modernised social standard.
世界对Mosuo的了解越多，它就越是把自己的理想强加给部落。 同样真实的是，随着中国向更现代化的社会标准发展，其传统可能无法维持人民的幸福和满足。
The Mosuo report that they are so misunderstood that tourists come expecting the women to be promiscuous and try to take liberties with them, which is not surprisingly frowned upon by both the Mosuo men and women.
Mosuo报道说，他们被误解了，以至于游客来时期望女人会滥交，并试图与她们自由，这并不奇怪，Mosuo的男人和女人都皱起了眉头。
While walking marriage is tradition, it is not uncommon for couples to chose regular marriages and live under one roof. Indeed the more tourism that comes to the Mosuo, the more sophisticated job opportunities there are to lure them away from their nuclear families.
虽然步行婚姻是传统，但夫妻选择正规婚姻并住在一个屋檐下并不罕见。 事實上，莫索的旅遊業越多，吸引他們遠離核心家庭的工作機會就越複雜。
As young Mosuo woman are educated in schools, they are amongst a new generation that seek higher-paying, professional positions elsewhere, which in turn breaks the cycle of matriarchy.
随着年轻的摩苏族妇女在学校接受教育，她们是在其他地方寻求高薪专业职位的新一代之一，这反过来又打破了母权制的循环。
From a rather misunderstood point of view, the women of the Mosuo are somewhat oppressed; the men are encouraged to do very little, and that in reality, patriarchy prevails.
从一个相当被误解的观点来看，莫苏奥的妇女受到一些压迫；男人被鼓励很少做，而实际上，父权制占主导地位。
A young Mosuo woman, filmed speaking with reporters from Journeyman Productions said, “[the tradition] keeps women tied to the home. There’s no such thing as equality here. Women work harder at everything, in every way. The money is looked after by men…everything is controlled by men. Even the important matters at home are controlled by men. How can you say women’s position is higher, when there’s not even a female leader in the village, it’s all done by men”.
一位年轻的摩苏族妇女在与Journeyman Productions的记者交谈时说：“[传统]让女性与家联系在一起。 这里没有平等这种东西。 女人在各方面都更加努力地工作。 钱由男人照顾……一切都由男人控制。 即使是家里的重要事情也由男人控制。 你怎么能说女性的地位更高，因为村里连一个女性领导人都没有，这都是由男性完成的。”
Traditionally, the political leaders were often women, however, it remains true that most Mosuo officials are now men, but it has been reported that this is because the Mosuo feel men are a better choice for this, as the outside world is made up of male-dominated politics, so males are equal as representatives.
傳統上，政治领导人通常是女性，然而，目前大多数摩索官员仍然是男性，但有报道称，这是因为摩索人认为男性是更好的选择，因为外部世界是由男性主导的政治组成的，因此男性是平等的代表。
Whatever the outsider assumptions or personal beliefs about the Mosuo, that which remains authentic is that these people appear without the trappings of possessiveness, loneliness, financial and physical struggle, war, crime or orphaned children, and they do not even have a word for “jealousy” in their language.
无论外人对Mosuo的假设或个人信念如何，仍然真实的是，这些人没有占有欲、孤独、经济和身体斗争、战争、犯罪或孤儿的陷阱，他们的语言中甚至没有“嫉妒”一词。
Yet, alike ancient tribes across the human race the more families choose smaller homes and higher incomes, adapt modern ways and greater social standards, the less humanity will have left to learn from the people of these tribes. What the Mosuo teaches us is a very ancient alternative to a malfunctioning modern system, and that if observed organically, hopefully their lessons shall not go unlearned and the Mosuo become merely another page in the history books.
然而，与整个人类的古代部落一样，越来越多的家庭选择更小的房屋和更高的收入，适应现代方式和更高的社会标准，人类向这些部落的人学习的就越少。 Mosuo教給我們的是故障的現代系統的非常古老的替代方案，如果有機地觀察，希望他們的教訓不會被放棄，Mosuo只是歷史書中的另一頁。
