Weaving Women:Patrilineal Mosuo Women’s Weaving Skills And Life Worlds

Youmi Village,an ancient village inhabited by the Mosuo people in Ninglang Yi Autonomous County,Lijiang City,Yunnan Province,is currently focused on the Dongba culture,and no scholars have paid attention to the women and their waist weaving fabrics.In the age of industrialization and informationization,why do women in Youmi Village still adhere to traditional hand-knitting? What does knitting mean for women? On the basis of collecting and analyzing ancient songs and scriptures,the author investigates weaving techniques and their practice subjects by becoming a weaving apprentice,using the means of participation observation and in-depth interviews.Taking Mosuo women in Youmi Village as the research object,this paper focuses on women’s weaving practices and daily life from the perspective of gender and practice,and describes the weaving skills and life world of Mosuo women.This article attempts to understand how women actively participate in social life through weaving,which connects kinship,"partnership",and nature,society,and culture.Women are not passive recipients of social norms,they use weaving to express their hearts and create dynamically through weaving.In the first chapter,I will introduce the technology of weaving and attempt to illustrate the "knowledge" in weaving,understanding how weaving shapes a "moral" subject in women’s experience of weaving.In the second chapter,I bring the use of fabrics into my eyes and understand how weaving,as a woman’s "vocation," connects weavers with family members,society,and culture.In the third chapter,I try to uncover a corner of the practice of weaving,how weaving constructs a woman’s world,and how women weave their own networks through weaving.In the fourth chapter,I try to present a "concrete" image of the weaver,putting weaving into the context of his life,weaving is no longer seen as a simple skill,but becomes a theme throughout the weaver’s life,which will take on new meaning in the new era.