The Mosuo: Where marriage is not known

The Mosuo are a tribal people that live in the northeastern chineses privince of Yunnan. Unlike most other societies, the Mosuo are organized in a matriachal system, with women being more powerful than men. Lets have a closer look!

Traditionally, Mosuo women are leading the extended family, with one of them being chosen as the head of it. They are responsible for the organization of work, financial affairs and relationships with other families and public authorities. Grandmothers, mothers and daughters can inhibit the same house, with uncles, brothers and sons being happily accepted. All the family sleeps together in the living room, except for the grown up women, that enjoy the luxury of private rooms on the first floor.

With the age of 13, boys and girls are considered adult, an event that is celebrated in the tribal community. If a child dies before this age, it will not get a traditional funeral.

Marriage is now practiced among the Mosuo and sexual relationships are practiced freely. This means, that when a woman and a man are attracted to each other, they will be dating and the man can come to the woman's private room in the evening, but has to leave from there before morning. Relationships can last very long and even for the entire life, but the friend of the woman will never be part of her family. Instead, he will stay with his parents and other relatives, as well as the children of his sisters and nieces. Even if the woman he is in a relationship with has children, he will never be their father, instead, they will be raised by her and her brothers and nephews. Relationships are monogamous and might well last for years or decades.

The result of this setting, where a person never leaves the family he or she is born into, are very stable family structures. There are no divorces, no struggle over inheritances or child custody and all children will be cared for by the extended family. In the 1970s, the chinese government forced the Mosuo couples to marry - with the result that all of them divorced a few weeks later and returned to their traditional way of life.

Quite interesting setting I think - and seems to work out. Never heard of a society where marriage is not known before...

--- by Nils ---

Women Leaders = $$$!!??!

Some research suggests that companies with a high number of female managers and directors outperform the average market performance.

This led Nuissance Capital (a Swiss-based investment company) to initiate a “Womens Leadership Fund” – an Investment fund investing only in companies with a high number of women in leading positions.

Interesting approach that shows that equality is not all about “being nice to disadvantaged” but actually paying off financially! ;-) (though, the fund will have to prove to be a above-average performing one)

Want to invest? Or just know more? Have a look:
http://www.naissancecapital.com/NC/?id=35


--- by Nils ---

Perception

..something to think about...

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January

morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds

and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk..

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children

to move on quickly.

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theatre in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social

experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected

context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be

this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made....

How many other things are we missing?

[Sent to me by a friend] - Tasneem.

Develop better sense!

Learn from the brilli‘ant’

Let us not be fooled by their size since size doesn’t always matter anyway!! One little bite can get us jumping off the ground with many long minutes of irresistible itch.

But that’s not all that comes to my mind when I think of our ‘Ant’ friends. Here are some interesting facts about the working of ants and believe me, there’s plenty to learn from them!

Get the Team work right!

“Whether it’s 2 people, a department or an organization, teams are the means by which great things get done” – Steven .J. Stowell

Team work is all about getting very different individuals to work together showing appreciation and respect and ensuring maximum productivity. Undoubtedly, we all struggle at different times trying to get it right.

Ants have very enviable team working capabilities. Within the community there is a wide variety of activities and behaviors, with each ant knowing its place and fulfilling its duties with total loyalty to the whole. Each ant does his bit to ensure the survival of the whole community. They work hard, are patient and co-operative. An ant is able to carry a leaf, a crumb or a dead ant for miles - just to get back home to the anthill, requiring a load of stamina and patience. If an ant has to fight,  dig tunnels or carry leaves for miles, it will, all for the good of the community. As well as being extremely hard working they possess an extraordinary ability to work as a team - the power of their medicine - to build their homes, to feed and protect all members of their colony with honour and respect toward their common goal - the good of the community. Worker ants are great architects and can show us how to construct our dreams into reality.

Team work - Simply stated, is less ‘me’ and more ‘we’.

The watchful ants!

They not only work well, but protect and caution their colony from danger. Ants interact using a system known as pheromones, which involves sending 'chemical messages' to their community through smell and taste. This is one of the oldest and most evolved forms of group communication on the planet and has many features that today's mobile and virtual teams could benefit from.

Certain types, such as alarm pheromones, produce a “releaser effect”, which induces a quick response and may be used to tell other ants to evacuate a dangerous area such as an approaching lawnmower. For example, when a spider approaches an ant will release alarm pheromones that alert all the other ants. Ants may also discharge alarm pheromones as a result from being diverted from their work, e.g. heavy human steps.

“Ants are good citizens, they place group interests first” – Clarence Day

What a sacrifice!

Queen ants have wings and are able to fly until they fall pregnant. Once pregnant they tear of their own wings sacrificing the ability to fly for the birth of a newborn.

Imagine what the world would be like if humanity held and applied the values that the ant expresses. Hard work and patience, which come with the power of the ant, make goals and dreams a reality.

Something fun to do!

"To stop them coming into my kitchen I put some sugar outside. They have so much to eat that they are not interested in coming into my kitchen". - Anonymous


 --- by Tasneem ---

Grounded

In ski jumping, one major challenge is to jump a long distance.

The distance women will have to cover to get equal access to the winter Olympics in ski jumping, has been enlarged by the International Olympic Committee in 2006: The IOC rejected the establishment of women’s ski jumping at the Olympic Games in Vancouver next year due to technical reasons.

Ski jumping and Nordic combined (a combination of ski jumping and cross country skiing) are the only winter Olympics sports that are reserved for men.

The main reason being that the amount of organized women ski jumpers does not reach the IOC’s minimum requirement (rule 47 of the Olympic Charter), the IOC failed to explain one interesting point: The number of organized men ski jumpers also fails to reach the minimum requirement, but for men there has been an exception to this rule for decades.

After the IOC’s decision, some female ski jumpers from several countries brought the case to the supreme court of British Columbia, the Canadian state hosting the Olympics. The court ruled that "the plaintiffs will be denied this opportunity for no reason other than their sex," but the IOC was not subject to the jurisdiction of the British Columbia Supreme Court.

The International Ski Federation has re-proposed to the IOC to include women’s ski jumping on the program of the winter Olympics 2014 in Sochi.  Let’s hope the distance women ski jumpers have to cover to get equal access to the Olympic Games won’t be longer than that!

--- by Nils ---