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Kinship and Family Systems

Walking Marriage

Marriage Systems

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Walking marriage (Chinese: zou hun) is the Mosuo people's marriage-like partnership in which each partner keeps a separate residence in their own mother's household; the man visits the woman's home at night by her invitation and returns to his own home by morning. Children born of the arrangement stay with the mother's family, and the father carries no legal or cultural obligation to support them financially, though he may choose to give gifts.

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Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own account
Documented among the Mosuo people of southwestern China. 1
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Walking marriage, practiced by the Mosuo of southwestern China, occurs within a strongly matrilineal descent system in which children remain in the mother household and lineage.

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