[mjfl]

There is a tradeoff with these cultures - men contribute little to child rearing as a result of having less parental certainty. This is very hard for women, as they have to both subsistence farm and raise children. From that perspective, "at least the sexual double standard isn't present", is a first world problem. These women lead hard lives, directly as a result of losing the efficiency of the single partner marriage.

[scotty79]

Not sure if that's the case. Women remain with their family, with their brothers and fathers, and possibly uncles. No sure if men have issue with helping their sisters and their children. I think such large family provides way more support to young mother than any single man can provide.

[mjfl]

The men don't farm. That's most of the work. They butcher livestock, fish, but mostly "preserve their strength for nighttime visits".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosuo#Role_of_men

https://jezebel.com/in-chinese-matriarchal-society-women-do-...

https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/the-mosuo-mat...

[scotty79]

That doesn't mean that in more traditionally organised society they'd farm. Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't. Maybe their traditional "men deal with animals, women deal with plants" would be kept.

> That's most of the work.

The wikipedia sounds like livestock and fishing is also big part of their lives.

[lambdaphagy]

Sarah Constantin's essay on plow cultures and hoe cultures seems apposite here: https://srconstantin.wordpress.com/2017/09/13/hoe-cultures-a...

(Note the very first photo in the wikipedia article)

[asveikau]

I don't know if or easy or hard for them, because if the culture is set up that way to begin with maybe it's adapted for that in ways a western mind would not anticipate.

I do, however, think it sounds like a huge bummer, speaking as a father who is very involved in raising my kids and would not like to be shut out of the role.

[elros]

Well I guess you'd still be very involved in raising your kids, it's simply that culturally in that society what you'd consider "your kids" would be your sister's kids.

Possibly if you would want in that society to raise the children you fathered it'd be akin to you in our society wanting to raise your sister's children.

[mjfl]

Farming sucks, even moreso when a single parent. It doesn't matter whether your mind is "western" or not.

[asveikau]

But the article says they live in a multi generational household with the mother's blood relatives. Doesn't sound like single parenting to me, itself a term with a very loaded meaning in our culture.

[Dude2025]

Explains no developed Mosuo civilization and what awaits western civilization.