University of Ottawa’s Classics & Religious Studies Department and InterCulture, with the participation of Representatives from the Lugu Lake Mosuo Cultural Development Association, are sponsoring a Sino-Canadian symposium entitled Matrilineal Societies: Redefinitions, Survival & Worldviews with an emphasis on the Mosuo.

The symposium has two overall goals:
o To publicize the existence of the Mosuo and other matrilineal societies and cultures; and
o To provide an opportunity for networking among matrilineal communities and scholars.

The immediate objective of the symposium is to evaluate the state of research and disseminate factual knowledge on matrilineal societies.

We are looking for general ethnographic descriptive studies of matrilineal societies, in past and contemporary contexts, as well as in-depth exploration of their intellectual cultures, including worldviews, myths and origin stories, symbolic systems, ritual life, general philosophies, and so forth. We welcome ethno-historical material and new examination of ancient cultures.

Our discussions will focus on whether it is sufficient to talk about matrilineal kinship systems or whether we need to consider matrilineal cultures. Also to be explored are the survival of matrilineal kinship systems in non-matrilineal dominant societies, as well their survival within a globalizing world.