PROMOTING GLOBAL DIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

The Mosuo clan, a complex socially structured semi-matriarchal community, resides in the shadows of the Himalayan mountains along the Luga Lake in China. They follow the maternal bloodline, where the women control households. The Mosuo people are conspicuously known for their walking marriages, where men and women change partners at will (Feng & Xiao, 2021). Over time, the cultural existence of the clan is attributed to the women’s dignified power, especially as seen during the Communist Revolution (Feng & Xiao, 2021).

Therefore, the primary strategy the Mosuo community incorporates to uphold their cultural endowment is facilitating the older women to be the custodians of the cultural and customary practices amid modernization. The young Mosuo generation, especially the male counterparts, moves to towns seeking different forms of employment. Most tend to adjust appropriately within their new environments to avoid multiculturalism biases (Feng & Xiao, 2021). Future generations rely on the cultural practices displayed by their forerunners. By allowing cultural diversity to reign in the hands of women, the sustainability of the same practices in the future is adequately considered since the women stay within their maternal homes and bring up the children as per the customary demands.

Another strategy the Mosuo community uses to strengthen its cultural well-being is the aspect of the Common House. Research conducted in nine Mosuo villages in Yongning Township revealed that the geography of the Common House has not changed despite the changing literacy and civilization in China’s socio-economic structure (Feng & Xiao, 2021). The family lives together. Regarding this analogy, the cultural aspect that the older women of the family coordinate continue to flourish despite the pressure from neighboring communities that adopt new lifestyles to conform to the trending socio-economic life and technological advancement. Cultural diversity in future generations significantly depends on the two aspects of cultural endowment, where the women take charge of the cultural inheritance from previous generations and carry it to proceeding younger generations over time, and the power of the common cultural house that ensures a typical culture-endowed lifestyle in the community (Feng & Xiao, 2021).

An example of a traditional artifact is Captain James Cook’s shield found in the British Museum. The shield is a sign of power said to have been appropriated by Cook during his first contact with the Gweagal in April 1770 (Thomas, 2018). Cultural artifacts commemorate the identity of a given event, customary practices, or some powerful leadership associated with a definite community in the past.

References

Thomas, N. (2018). A case of identity: The artifacts of the 1770 Kamay (Botany Bay) encounter. Australian Historical Studies, 49(1), 4-27.

Feng, H., & Xiao, J. (2021). Dynamic Authenticity: Understanding and Conserving Mosuo Dwellings in China in Transitions. Sustainability, 13(1), 143.

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Question

When indigenous groups feel pressure from outside forces—colonialism in the past or the seeming juggernaut of a global economy now—historically, the outside forces tend to overcome the indigenous groups. However, indigenous peoples are working toward self-determination and exercising their own agency, or power, to shape their destinies in response to globalization. In this Discussion, you explore the alliances and partnerships that work toward indigenous sustainability.

PROMOTING GLOBAL DIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

TO PREPARE FOR DISCUSSION:

Review this week’s Learning Resources, noting the ways in which indigenous groups ally themselves with others and adapt to change.
Identify a threat to cultural and biological diversity and/or environmental justice and sustainability in an indigenous group.
Investigate whether or not the indigenous group is partnering with an external activist to maintain cultural and biological diversity and/or promote environmental justice and sustainability.
Detail the joint actions that are undertaken or the opportunity for joint actions that could be undertaken to work toward diversity, justice, or sustainability for indigenous peoples.

BY DAY 3

Post two paragraphs that describe the joint actions undertaken—or that could be initiated—toward maintaining cultural and biological diversity or promoting environmental justice and/or sustainability for the indigenous group you identified. Analyze to what extent diversity, justice, and sustainability are important for the future of indigenous peoples.

Be sure to support your ideas by connecting them to the week’s Learning Resources or something you have read, heard, seen, or experienced.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.