Imagine a people whose language has no word for “marriage” or “husband”. Just such a tribe lives in the remote mountains of southeastern China. Lake Lugu, known as the “Country of Women” is home to the Mosuo, one of the few remaining matriarchal societies left in the world.

　　想像一某个族群，他们的语言里没有“婚姻”或“丈夫”。这样的部落居住在中国东南的偏远山区中，以“女儿国”闻名于世的泸沽湖是摩梭族的所在之地，他们是世界上仅存的少数母系社会之一。

　　Mosuo culture revolves around women: the women make all the important decisions, control the family’s resources, and pass their surnames onto their children. Rather than marry, a Mosuo woman takes many lovers over her lifetime, and the resulting children will always live with her. While the Mosou language has a word for “mother”, there is no word for “father” and Mosuo children refer to all older men as “uncle”.

　　摩梭文化以女性为中心：女性做所有重要决定，控制家族资源，并将姓氏传给她们的孩子。摩梭妇女不结婚，她们一生中有许多情人，因而出生的小孩永远和她们同住。摩梭语有“母亲”这个词，没有代表“父亲”的词，而摩梭族的孩子称所有较为年长的男性为“叔叔”。

　　Getting to Lake Lugu isn’t easy, and the isolation from the outside world helped the tribe keep their customs and culture intact. A generation ago, few outsiders had ever heard of Lake Lugu or the Mosuo.

　　要到泸沽湖并不容易，而与世隔绝的状况帮助这个部落原封不动地保留了自己的习俗和文化。在上一代，少有外地人听说过泸沽湖或摩梭族。

　　But after anthropologists first started to document the tribe’s customs, word got out about the uniqueness of their culture and the beauty of the lake. These reports attracted travelers and, at times, this once-isolated paradise seems filled with tourists who’ve come to gawk at the locals. Along with the visitors come stories of the outside world, tempting the young to leave home for the big cities in search of new opportunities.

　　但是，在人类学家第一次开始记录这个部落的习俗后，关于他们的特殊文化和美丽湖泊的消息就传开来了。这些报导引来了游客，有时这个曾经被孤立的天堂似乎挤满了跑来呆呆地凝望本地人的观光客。外界的故事随着观光客者传了进来，吸引年轻人离开家乡到大都市去寻找新的机会。

　　For better or worse, the unique world of the Mosuo people is changing. Many of the older Mosuo women prefer the old days, before the outsiders came with their strange clothing and stranger ideas. But most agree that change is inevitable. And some of the younger Mosuo women are speaking openly about getting married – a concept their grandmothers still don’t understand.

　　不管怎么说，摩梭人的独特世界正在改变。许多老一辈的摩梭女性比较喜欢过去的日子，那些在奇装异服、胡思乱想的外地人到访前的日子。但她们多数人同意改变是不可避免的。而有些较年轻的摩梭女性也公开谈起结婚一事，这是一个她们的祖母依旧不了解的概念。