Nu Guo. In the Name of the Mother. A Model of an Egalitarian Society in the Contemporary World

Full-length documentary of 57mn, directed by Francesca Rosati Freeman and Pio d’Emilia: A field study over several years in southwest China bordering Tibet, at an altitude of 2,700 metres, led F. Rosati Freeman to an understanding of the way of life of the Mosuo, a community of some 40,000 persons distinguished by its particular social and family structure, its rejection of marriage (though not of love, sex and procreation), and its recognition that the dabu, the eldest person in the family, has the wisdom, competence, ability and impartiality required to manage a family peacefully and harmoniously. No legal role is assigned to paternity but males co-operate with women in the education of children. In a way of life in which masculine and feminine are not in opposition but are complementary and mutually reinforcing, jealousy is despised, sexual liberty is respected, and domestic violence does not exist. Respect for the individual, veneration of nature, a gift economy, and concern for life, are traditional values transmitted from mother to child and from generation to generation. As with every egalitarian society, there is an evident danger of it being overwhelmed, through the effects of tourism and the media, by the dominant cultural and economic model. Indications of imminent change are already perceptible.