Mobile parenting practice among the matrilineal Mosuo men in Southwest China

• Main Author: Chen, Yingting
• Other Authors: Andrew Prahl
• Format: Thesis-Master by Research
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Social sciences::Communication
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/169361
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

A large body of research investigates how parents use mobile communication technologies to maintain relationships with their children. Compared to more common patrilineal cultures, research on parent-child mobile communication is understudied in matrilineal cultures. This study investigates how fathers of the matrilineal Mosuo cultural group in China use smartphones to communicate with their children. Parenting norms in the Mosuo culture are unique: men are expected to prioritize fatherly duties for their nephews and nieces over their biological children. Smartphones are positioned to challenge these cultural norms and expectations. This study adopts Bourdieu’s capital theory as a conceptual framework to understand the dynamics of economic, symbolic, cultural, and caring capital as smartphones are introduced into Mosuo father-child relationships. Semi-structured interviews (N=24) with Mosuo fathers reveal that smartphones are disruptive to the traditional notion of fatherhood in Mosuo culture. Smartphones open new lines of communication that bypass traditional gatekeepers in Mosuo culture and eliminate geographic barriers that have historically kept Mosuo culture isolated from greater Chinese culture. Disruption to traditional culture causes discrepancy among Mosuo men of how cultural capitals should be allocated. Results also show that the symbolic capital associated with masculinity in neoliberal China and the importance of children’s education are two social-cultural factors that Mosuo men are using smartphones to pursue.