The duolocal system of residence is a type of family system in which the husband and wife live separately, each residing with their consanguine kinship groups after marriage. In other words, the husband lives with his family and the wife lives with hers, and neither one of them changes the kinship group or clan that they are a part of.
This type of residency is also referred to as “walking marriage” or “visiting marriage” because the husband and wife only come together during special occasions, such as festivals or holidays. In addition, they would meet in order to conceive children.
Duolocal Societies
Anthropologist Harumi Befu conducted an ethnography in Nagakiri, an area that comprises seven hamlets in central Japan. He found that in these hamlets the head of a clan married patrilocally, which means that his wife moved to live with his kinship group. However, all the other members of the family followed the duolocal system and continued to live with their own kin after marriage. This type of arrangement is known as patrilineal duolocality.
The Mosuo of Southwest China, on the other, are an example of matrilineal duolocality. The Mosuo live in strips of farmland surrounded by steep, forested hills that are unsuitable for farming, at the boundary of the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan. Large matrilineal households made up of three generations of brothers, sisters, and matrilineal offspring, as well as a collective family farm, are the norm for Mosuo families.
Mosuo houses are large, centred around a sizable grandmother’s room where the grandchildren sleep as well as receive visitors. The grandmother takes care of the majority of the childcare needs as well as helping with farming and food preparation.
Male Mosuos are permitted to live with their mothers and sisters, who provide for them while they perform only minimal amounts of domestic or agricultural work. Many coresident breeding women help with childcare, home chores, and farm work in exchange for sharing all the household resources.
Related Terms:
Kinship – The relationships between people who are related by blood, marriage, or adoption.
Patrilocal Residence – A type of family system in which the husband and wife live with the husband’s kin.
Matrilocal Residence – A type of family system in which the husband and wife live with the wife’s kin.
Family System – A group of people who are related to each other by blood or marriage.
Separate Households – Two households that are occupied separately by a married couple.
Glossary Terms starting with D
- Debt Slavery – Entrapping Workers in a Cycle of Unpayable Debt
- Democracy – When all Citizens have an Equal Vote
- Demography – A Branch of Sociology that studies Human Populations
- Despotism – A Single Ruler who has Absolute Power
- Development – The process of Economic, Social and Cultural change
- Developmental Cycle of the Domestic Group – How Groups Change and Adapt Over Time
- Dialect – A Variety of a Language that has its own unique features
- Dialectic Reasoning – A Debate that Leads to a Conclusion
- Discrimination – Treating People Differently based on their Race, Gender or Other Characteristics
- Divination – Gaining Information through Supernatural Means
- Division of Labour – Assigning Tasks in such a way as to Enable Specialisation
- Domestic Mode of Production – Producing Goods for the Family
- Duolocal Residence – When Husband and Wife Live Separately
- Durkheim, Émile: The Father of Sociology and His Contributions to Anthropology
- Dowry – A Form of Marriage Payment
- Dynasty – A Line of Hereditary Rulers
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