Na-xi & Mo-so, I : "Kin".

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transcription of phonetic transliteration-systems

p. 13b vowel-tomes

standard

Rock

pronunciation

     

`

1

low falling

^

2

middle level

3

high short

 

4

low to high (in loan-words)

     
 

v

ia

     

consonants

mainland

Rock

aspirated system

p>

p’

 

p

bp

p>

b

b

p

mb

bb (allophone of /mb/)

mp

     
 

t’

t.

 

d’

d.

t

dt

t>

d

dd

t

     
 

k’

k.

k

gk

k>

g

gg

k

     

z

ds

ts

c

ts’

ts>

x

ss

hs

s^

sh

s^

z^

zh

c^

q

kh

c^>

 

ll

l~

{The aspirated system may be a more accurate transcription, in regard to pronunciation;

the symbols used in the mainland system are, however, misleading, being

not at all similar to the usage of the International Phonetic Association.

Single-sign symbols should, more infomatively, use something like Hottentot click-signs.}

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pp. 47-66 Susanne Kno:del : "Yongning Moso Kinship and Chinese State Power".

p. 49b "Co-residence of couples, be they married or not, is avoided ... by favouring a visiting relationship of partners. ... The male partner visits the female at night and leaves in the morning."

{This is identical with the Spartan custom, which may be praesumed to have formerly (in view of the reputed conservatism of Spartan society) been in vogue throughout Hellas, "traditional" (FGH-R). "The custom was to capture women for marriage... [vide GM 103.b] the captured girl ... shaved her hair to the scalp {<arabi^ bridal custom} ...The bridegroom ... After spending only a short time with her, he would depart discreetly so as to sleep wherever he usually did along with the other young men. And this practice continued to be his practice thereafter: while spending the days with his contemporaries, and going to sleep with them, he would warily visit his bride in secret... It was not just for a short period that young men would do this, but for long enough that some might even have children before they saw their own wives in daylight." (Ploutarkhos: Life of Lukourgos 15.1-5, translated in Fantham, 1994, 62-63) (SW) The Aitolian comportment of the huntress Atalante was similar to that of the neighborian Dorian women. Actually, this custom visiting instead of co-habiting is widespread worldwide, being commonplace among traditional Japanese nobility, throughout Polynesia, etc. These custom of the husband never being seen by his wife must have been formerly praevalent in India, as in the myth of the ap-saras Urvas`i and her husband}

{"Xenophon and Plutarch reported that Spartan husbands often shared their wives with another man in order to produce more children. It was considered acceptable for an older man with a young wife to grant permission for a younger man to have sexual intercourse with her as a means of begetting more physically fit children. In addition, a Spartan man, who wanted children but did not want to enter into a marriage arrangement, could request permission of a woman’s husband to share her sexually. There is no indication that the Spartan women objected to such arrangements; and, since many Spartan women owned land as well as managed the household, they may have seen it as an opportunity to supervise a second household; and, after all, a married woman’s duty in Spartan society was to beget and rear strong children for the state. Regardless of the motivations, it does appears that some ancient historians like Plutarch saw these Spartan customs being the reason adultery, illegitimacy and prostitution did not exist in Sparta. (Blundell, 1995, 151-155; Pomeroy, 1975, 34-42; Pomeroy, 1991, 142-144; Seltman, 1955, 57-63)}{this was an also antient <arabi^ custom}

pp. 49b-50a "An institutionalized sexual union of this kind is up to now known only from the Nayar of Kerala ..."

Cognate with /NaYar/ may be /NeRi/ (name of ancestor of Iesous – Euangelion of Loukas 3:27) ‘lamp’, alluding to the lamp-oil spilled by Psukhe as she gazed upon her sleeping husband Erot- (who had been visiting her unseen at night); and

/NIReu-/, name of a hero who slew the ‘sacred’ (Hiera) wife of Telephos (= [<arabi^] T.alib ‘student’) on account of her accompanying her own husband in the manner described by Herodotos for Tunisia.

FGH-R = AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY - Volume 121, Number 1 (Whole Number 481), Spring 2000, pp. 153-155 Cox, Cheryl Anne 1953- : "The Family in Greek History (review)"

SW = http://people.uncw.edu/deagona/amazons/spartanwomen2.htm#Excerpts%20Education

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pp. 67-100 Elizabeth Hsu : "Moso and Naxi : the House".

p. 68b -- 6 different marriage-forms at Din-ri

fraternal polyandry

sororal polygyny

unrelated men marrying a woman

unrelated women marrying a man

father and son sharing a wife

mother and daughter sharing a husband

p. 74a sam-bandha-m (‘joining-together’) of Nayar

"among the Nayar in central Kerala ... "a husband normally visited his wife [in her home] after eating supper in his natal house, and left before breakfast."

{It was the custom of the Roman nobility for husband and wife to be together only at night; this may likewise have been normative custom in all antient aristocracies.}

p. 78b paternity among the Moso

"Regardless of whether or not the sexual union between two partners is openly known to others, fatherhood is socially not acknowledged. People feel embarrassed if asked who their father is ..."

pp. 82-83 belief among the N~inba as to embryologic contributions by parents

p.

text

82b

"bone is passed on from father to inchoate offspring during the act of [sexual] intercourse which triggers a conception. This substance is said to be transmitted through the male’s sperm which, in its whiteness, is identified with bone.

82b-83a

The soft, fleshy and red parts of the child’s body are thought to derive from the mother’s ... uterine blood."

indolence of Na-xi men

p. 89a "Naxi women ... encouraged their men to loaf, lounge, and to look after the babies."

{This is the norm throughout Africa, and even in Borneo.}

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Michael Oppitz & Elizabeth Hsu : Naxi and Moso Ethnography. Vo:lkerkundemuseum, Zu:rich, 1998. pp. 1-100.