Moso Guest House for Cross Cultural Matriarchal Studies and Erased Women History Center

Between Sichuan and Yunnan, around Lugu Lake under the Hymalaian chain, lay the mythical Land of Daughters where Moso people live and still follow the laws of the Dabus, the grandmothers that through their mother centred families lead their society and carry on ancient traditions which risk soon to fade away with their generation or that of their daughters to mass tourism and globalisation.

The Moso is one of the few indigenous societies of peace that are still not completely consumed by the capitalism probably rooted in the much debated matriarchy, and still mantaining strong features of it in spite of much of the female shamanistic tradition being lost and denied in still not clearly identified past centuries.

Near the lake in a rural village on Sichuan side in a traditional Moso house, we want to create a space for women from all walks of life, to find a refuge from patriarchy, to re-discover themselves in sisterhood, motherhood, daughterhood and womanhood in general. And why not in friendship.

The guest house will also serve as a study center to continue the research on matriarchal societies and erased women history and genius, so to reactivate the lost wisdoms in the vital exchange between women that patriarchy and capitalism have persecuted and obstacled for so many centuries.

We also aim to investigate the archaic shamanistic role of women in matriarchal societies with relation to the current role of such re-discovery in world change and shifting of patriarchal paradigms of gender and power.

IN TOTAL WE AIM TO RAISE 70.000 euros

• 50000 Euros to transform a traditional Moso House of Sadama, into a Cross Cultural Matriarchal Studies and Erased Women History Guest House to reunite all the erased women's contribution to our human heritage and history. Of these 50,000, We need 40.000 Euros to do all the necessary improvements to the house to create a comfortable place with all the amenities for our guests (heating, toilettes, shower, library) (And for the pigs. In fact We hope to be to communicate with the local family hosting the project about the possibility of building a fence to keep the pigs in the fields during the day so they may live in better conditions. Please note that this family is very poor and like all Moso family is not vegetarian, they grow their own vegetables in shared fields with other Moso familes, fish, and kill one pig a year in mid November. Sometimes I have seen the father grabbing some bird with his hands killing it, taking the feathers off and cooking it. This is how they survive. However it is quite possible for short stays to eat vegan or vegetarian at the house as it is now, and by the time we get to open the actual guest House we will think about how to meet vegan and vegetarian needs of guests. Do be aware however that you will always see parts of pigs hanging around Moso houses. The Chinese character for home (家 pronounced jia, is a pig under a roof, just to realise how much all over China the population counted on pigs for survival. This cannot be changed
• The remainf 10000 euros are for the books and dvds on erased women history, 1 video player + 1 projector +1 music player

• 20.000 euros is necessary in order to fund part of the research for the anthropology PhD on denied female shamanism in Naxi and Moso cultures linked to this project and necessary in legal and management terms to make it happen carried out by Ilaria Borjigid Bohm. Ilaria, researcher and co-founder of this project has dedicated her life to the study of female shamanism and matriarchal societies since 1996, lived 20 years of her life in contact with aboriginal people across the world, particularly in the Pacific South East, China and South America. (costs of the research include books, material, translation, language classes (Dongba , Chinese and Moso) and fieldwork for the upcoming 3 years across Yunnan, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Tibet, Mongolia, as the government scholarship only covers for RMB 3500 per month ((440 euros)). The rest she is funding herself but she does not have sufficient funds to cover all costs and materials, particularly flights, books, transport and guides in the unknown at times unsafe territories she needs to explore (e.g. Xinjiang). Her research work is more than a full time and it involves a lot of travelling so further work to self fund the research is practicably impossible

For more information about the people involved, the Moso culture and the Guest House, please visit our website www.wombhome.wordpress.com/

Video presentation:

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We need the support and solidarity of all, no donation is too small (or too big for that matter!)

Il nostro obiettivo è trasformare una casa tradizionale Moso in una guest house tradizionale Moso di studi matriarcali interculturali e storia cancellata delle donne per riunire tutto il contributo e il riconoscimento negato delle donne al nostro patrimonio umano e alla nostra storia.

Miriamo anche a indagare il ruolo sciamanico arcaico delle donne e la libertà della sessualità femminile nelle società matriarcali in relazione al ruolo attuale di tale riscoperta nel cambiamento del mondo e nello spostamento dei paradigmi patriarcali di genere e potere.

Ilaria Borjigid Bohm, co-fondatrice del progetto PhD si dedica allo studio dello sciamanesimo femminile e delle società matriarcali dal 1996, ha vissuto 20 anni della sua vita a contatto con persone aborigene in giro per il mondo, in particolare nel Pacifico sud-orientale, in Cina e Sud America e sta facendo un dottorato di ricerca sul ruolo negato dello sciamanesimo e sessualità femminile nelle culture di Naxi e Moso. Per coprire i libri, i materiali e il lavoro sul campo, i prossimi 3 anni attraverso Yunnan, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Tibet, Monogolia saranno necessari 20.000 euro, poiché la borsa di studio governativa copre solo per RMB 3500 (440 euro)

Per maggiori informazioni potete visitare il nostro sito www.wombhome.wordpress.com

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Abbiamo bisogno del sostegno e della solidarietà di tutte e tutti.