PATTERNS OF DESCENT
DESCENT

In many regions of the world one encounters
people who are organized into groups based on
a belief in common descent from shared
ancestors reckoned back multiple generations.

If the ancestor was a human being, the people
so related are said to constitute a lineage.
RELEVANT TERMINOLOGY
People related by blood are agnates or
consanguineal relatives.
 People related by marriage are affines.

TOTEMS AND TOTEMIC DESCENT
The ancestor may not have been a human
being. People who have an animistic world view
may believe themselves to be descended from
a spirit shared with an animal, plant, mineral,
or heavenly body. This spiritual ancestor is a
totem.
 People linked together
in this manner constitute
a totemic clan.

Totemic beliefs regulate marriage and rituals.
 For instance a person born into one clan at
Kewa pueblo in New Mexico can’t marry a
person of the same clan. The clans are
therefore
exogamous.
Since there are only
Two clans at Kewa,
anthropologists call
these moieties.

PATRILINEAL DESCENT
=
1
= male
= female
2
=
3
=
=
4
5
=
7
8
9
10
Who is in the patrilineage?
A: 1, 4, 5, 8, 10
6
=
11
=
12
13
14
MATRILINEAL DESCENT
ACOMA PUEBLO, NEW MEXICO
Who is in the matrilineage?
A: 2, 5, 12, 14, 21, 22
Who is the heir of no. 12?
A: 21
=
1
= male
= female
2
=
3
=
4
=
7
15
5
=
8
9
16
17
6
=
10
18
11
19
=
12
20
13
21
14
22
KINSHIP, LINEAGES AND MARRIAGE
Western European cultures, and those cultures
derived from them, use descriptive kinship
terminology. This systems distinguishes
between related individuals of the same sex of
the same generation. Hence, father’s brother is
called uncle, and mother’s sister is called aunt.
 Many other cultures use classificatory
terminology which does not distinguish
between same sex relatives of a generation.

CROSS-COUSIN MARRIAGE
=
1
= male
= female
2
=
3
=
4
5
=
7
6
=
8
9
=
10
11
Why is this marriage considered to be acceptable?
12

Cross-cousin marriage amounts to lineage
exogamy.
Over time it results in the formation
of long-standing alliances between
lineages.

PARALLEL COUSIN MARRIAGE
=
1
= male
= female
2
=
3
=
4
5
=
10
6
=
7
8
9
Parallel cousin marriage amounts to lineage endogamy.
10
SEGMENTARY SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Lineages are often the building blocks of higherorder groupings that anthropologists describe by a
variety of terms: “major lineage,” “clan,” phratry,”
and “tribe.” The lower-order segments may control
access to resources, in which case they are said to
be corporate groups.
 The higher-order groups inhabit and defend a
territory. However, there are no upper-level leaders
– so such societies are acephalous.

EXAMPLE: THE NUER OF SOUTH SUDAN
STUDIED BY E.E. EVANS-PRITCHARD
EXAMPLE: WAZIRIS OF PAKISTAN
Founding ancestor of Pukhtuns
Clan ancestors
Genealogical relationships between ancestors
are remembered when they suite a political
purpose.
 Genealogical relationships are forgotten for the
same reason.
 Without an external enemy to unify them,
lineages and clans tend to have relationships
of rivalry. E. Evans Pritchard called this
complementary opposition.
