Descent[edit]

Descent rules[edit]
In many societies where kinship connections are important, there are rules, though they may be
expressed or be taken for granted. There are four main headings that anthropologists use to
categorize rules of descent. They are bilateral, unilineal, ambilineal and double descent. [9]

 Bilateral descent or two-sided descent affiliates an individual more or less equally with
relatives on his father's and mother's sides. A good example is the Yakurr of the Crossriver state
of Nigeria.
 Unilineal rules affiliates an individual through the descent of one sex only, that is, either
through males or through females. They are subdivided into two: patrilineal(male)
and matrilineal (female). Most societies are patrilineal. Examples of a matrilineal system of
descent are the Nyakyusa of Tanzania and the Nair of India. Many societies that practise a
matrilineal system often have a matrilocal residence but men still exercise significant authority.
 Ambilineal (or Cognatic) rule affiliates an individual with kinsmen through the father's or
mother's line. Some people in societies that practise this system affiliate with a group of relatives
through their fathers and others through their mothers. The individual can choose which side he
wants to affiliate to. The Samoans of the South Pacific are an excellent example of an ambilineal
society. The core members of the Samoan descent group can live together in the same
compound.
 Double descent (or double unilineal descent) refers to societies in which both the patrilineal
and matrilineal descent group are recognized. In these societies an individual affiliates for some
purposes with a group of patrilineal kinsmen and for other purposes with a group of matrilineal
kinsmen. Individuals in societies that practice this are recognized as a part of multiple descent
groups, usually at least two. The most widely known case of double descent is the Afikpo of Imo
state in Nigeria. Although patrilineage is considered an important method of organization, the
Afikpo considers matrilineal ties to be more important.
Descent groups[edit]
A descent group is a social group whose members talk about common ancestry. A unilineal society
is one in which the descent of an individual is reckoned either from the mother's or the father's line of
descent. Matrilineal descent is based on relationship to females of the family line. A child would not
be recognized with their father’s family in these societies, but would be seen as a member of their
mother’s family’s line.[10] Simply put, individuals belong to their mother's descent group. Matrilineal
descent includes the mother's brother, who in some societies may pass along inheritance to the
sister's children or succession to a sister's son. Conversely, with patrilineal descent, individuals
belong to their father's descent group. Children are recognized as members of their father’s family,
and descent is based on relationship to males of the family line. [10] Societies with the Iroquois
kinship system, are typically unilineal, while the Iroquois proper are specifically matrilineal.
In a society which reckons descent bilaterally (bilineal), descent is reckoned through both father and
mother, without unilineal descent groups. Societies with the Eskimo kinship system, like
the Inuit, Yupik, and most Western societies, are typically bilateral. The egocentric kindred group is
also typical of bilateral societies. Additionally, the Batek people of Malaysia recognize kinship ties
through both parents' family lines, and kinship terms indicate that neither parent or their families are
of more or less importance than the other.[11]
Some societies reckon descent patrilineally for some purposes, and matrilineally for others. This
arrangement is sometimes called double descent. For instance, certain property and titles may be
inherited through the male line, and others through the female line.
Societies can also consider descent to be ambilineal (such as Hawaiian kinship) where offspring
determine their lineage through the matrilineal line or the patrilineal line.
Lineages, clans, phratries, moieties, and matrimonial sides [edit]
A lineage is a unilineal descent group that can demonstrate their common descent from a
known apical ancestor. Unilineal lineages can be matrilineal or patrilineal, depending on whether
they are traced through mothers or fathers, respectively. Whether matrilineal or patrilineal descent is
considered most significant differs from culture to culture.
A clan is generally a descent group claiming common descent from an apical ancestor. Often, the
details of parentage are not important elements of the clan tradition. Non-human apical ancestors
are called totems. Examples of clans are found
in Chechen, Chinese, Irish, Japanese, Polish, Scottish, Tlingit, and Somali societies.
A phratry is a descent group composed of two or more clans each of whose apical ancestors are
descended from a further common ancestor.
If a society is divided into exactly two descent groups, each is called a moiety, after the French word
for half. If the two halves are each obliged to marry out, and into the other, these are called
matrimonial moieties. Houseman and White (1998b, bibliography) have discovered numerous
societies where kinship network analysis shows that two halves marry one another, similar to
matrimonial moieties, except that the two halves—which they call matrimonial sides[12]—are neither
named nor descent groups, although the egocentric kinship terms may be consistent with the pattern
of sidedness, whereas the sidedness is culturally evident but imperfect. [13]
The word deme refers to an endogamous local population that does not have unilineal descent.
[14]
 Thus, a deme is a local endogamous community without internal segmentation into clans.
House societies[edit]
Main article: House society

In some societies kinship and political relations are organized around membership in corporately
organized dwellings rather than around descent groups or lineages, as in the "House of Windsor".
The concept of a house society was originally proposed by Claude Lévi-Strauss who called them
"sociétés à maison".[15][16] The concept has been applied to understand the organization of societies
from Mesoamerica and the Moluccas to North Africa and medieval Europe.[17][18] Lévi-Strauss
introduced the concept as an alternative to 'corporate kinship group' among the cognatic kinship
groups of the Pacific region. The socially significant groupings within these societies have variable
membership because kinship is reckoned bilaterally (through both father's and mother's kin) and
come together for only short periods. Property, genealogy and residence are not the basis for the
group's existence.[19]

Marriage (affinity)[edit]
Main article: Marriage

Marriage is a socially or ritually recognized union or legal contract between spouses that establishes

rights and obligations between them, between them and their children, and between them and their
in-laws.[20] The definition of marriage varies according to different cultures, but it is principally
an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged.
When defined broadly, marriage is considered a cultural universal. A broad definition of marriage
includes those that are monogamous, polygamous, same-sex and temporary.
The act of marriage usually creates normative or legal obligations between the individuals involved,
and any offspring they may produce. Marriage may result, for example, in "a union between a man
and a woman such that children born to the woman are the recognized legitimate offspring of both
partners."[21] Edmund Leach argued that no one definition of marriage applied to all cultures, but
offered a list of ten rights frequently associated with marriage, including sexual monopoly and rights
with respect to children (with specific rights differing across cultures). [22]
There is wide cross-cultural variation in the social rules governing the selection of a partner for
marriage. In many societies the choice of partner is limited to suitable persons from specific social
groups. In some societies the rule is that a partner is selected from an individual's own social group
– endogamy, this is the case in many class and caste based societies. But in other societies a
partner must be chosen from a different group than one's own – exogamy, this is the case in many
societies practicing totemic religion where society is divided into several exogamous totemic clans,
such as most Aboriginal Australian societies. Marriages between parents and children, or between
full siblings, with few exceptions,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] have been considered incest and forbidden.
However, marriages between more distant relatives have been much more common, with one
estimate being that 80% of all marriages in history have been between second cousins or closer. [31]

Alliance (marital exchange systems)[edit]

Main article: Alliance theory

Systemic forms of preferential marriage may have wider social implications in terms of economic and
political organization. In a wide array of lineage-based societies with a classificatory kinship system,
potential spouses are sought from a specific class of relative as determined by a prescriptive
marriage rule. Insofar as regular marriages following prescriptive rules occur, lineages are linked
together in fixed relationships; these ties between lineages may form political alliances in kinship
dominated societies.[32] French structural anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss developed alliance
theory to account for the "elementary" kinship structures created by the limited number of
prescriptive marriage rules possible.[33]
Claude Lévi-Strauss argued in The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949), that the incest
taboo necessitated the exchange of women between kinship groups. Levi-Strauss thus shifted the
emphasis from descent groups to the stable structures or relations between groups that preferential
and prescriptive marriage rules created.