World History
Matrilineal
Makeup/XCR Assignment 26
Reading: Please do all the work below on a separate sheet of paper, and be sure to use complete
sentences in your definitions and answers. You may read the article about kinship which follows the
questions below, for more background on the topic.
Answer each of the following questions:
(1) Why are matrilineal and patrilineal systems so concerned about issues of inheritance and property
rights?
(2) Historically, the traditional cultures of southern India tend to be matrilineal, and those of northern
India tend to be patrilineal. How is this an example of syncretism?
(3) There is some evidence that the earliest human kinship groups (before the rise of human
civilizations) were mostly or all matrilineal, and that the concept of patrilineality developed relatively
recently in human history, just a few thousand years ago. What is the genetic/biological logic behind
this argument?
(4) Why might matrilineal societies be much more likely to have systems of multiple marriage, and
sometimes group marriage, than patrilineal ones?
(5) Although modern European and American culture still has strong patriarchal elements, it is generally
considered to be bilineal (both matri-and patri-lineal). Why do you think this is the case? Hint: Think
about who you and your classmates consider to be your own families.
(6) Although matrilineal cultures are often run by women, they do not have to be. Traditionally, the
Jewish people were a matrilineal culture (one inherits their Jewish faith from their mother) that was run
by the fathers and eldest men. What benefits would such an arrangement have for the men running the
culture?
Matrilineal Kinship
based on http://anthro.palomar.edu/kinship/kinship_2.htm
and http://sociologyindex.com/matrilineal_descent.htm
Kinship is reckoned in a number of different
ways around the world, resulting in a
variety of systems and kinship
groups. Anthropologists frequently use
diagrams to illustrate kinship relationships
to make them more understandable. The
symbols shown here are usually employed. They may be combined, as in the example above
on the right, to represent a family consisting of a married couple and their children.
In order to explain kinship diagrams (or family
trees), one individual is usually labeled as
ego. This is the person to whom all kinship
relationships in that family tree are
referred. In the case on the right, ego has a
brother (Br), sister (Si), father (Fa), and mother (Mo). Note that in this example, ego is shown
as being gender nonspecific--that is, either male or female.
Most cultures severely limit the range of people through whom descent is traced by using a
unilineal principle. This traces descent only through a single line of ancestors, either male or
female. Both males and females are members of a unilineal family, but descent links are only
recognized through relatives of one gender. The two basic forms of unilineal descent are
referred to as patrilineal and matrilineal
With patrilineal descent, both males and
females belong to their father's kin group but
not their mother's. Furthermore, only males
pass on their family name to their children. A
woman's children are members of her
husband's patrilineal line, not her own.
The people labeled in red in the diagram above are therefore related to each other patrilineally
(related through the fathers).
The form of unilineal descent that follows a female line is known as matrilineal. In matrilineal
societies, property is often passed from mothers to daughters and the custom of matrilocal
residence (where the husband lives with his wife’s family after marriage) may be practiced. In
matrilineal societies, the descendants of men are their sister's children and not their own, who
belong to their mother's matrilineage. When using this pattern, individuals are relatives if they
can trace descent through females to the same female ancestor. While both male and female
children are members of their mother's matrilineal descent group, only daughters can pass on
the family line and family name to their offspring.
The green people to the right are related to
each other matrilineally (through the mothers).
In many matrilineal societies, women's influence and prestige tended to increase with age, with
the oldest women (the “mothers” of families) having formal leadership roles. Women
frequently were in charge of economic activities, farming, artisan work, and trading, which gave
women considerable independence. Women (especially elders) had enormous prestige in the
family’s home town. Women generally also had greater autonomy in terms of choosing when
to have children than their counterparts in male dominated (patriarchal) societies.
In societies using matrilineal descent, the
social relationship between children and their
biological father tends to be different than
most people would expect due to the fact that
the father is not a blood member of their
family. In the case of “ego” to the right, the
man with the formal responsibilities that
most European and Asian cultures assign to a father would be his mother's brother (MoBr),
since he is the closest elder male kinsmen. Ego's father would have the same kind of
responsibilities for his sister's children, and NOT for his own.
Inheritance patterns for men in matrilineal societies also often reflect the importance of the
mother's brother. For example, in the Ashanti Kingdom of Central Ghana, a king
traditionally passed his title and status on to his sister's son. A king's own biological son
does not inherit the kingship because he is not a member of the ruling matrilineal family
group. Women would inherit status and property directly from their mothers in these
matrilineal societies.
Unilineal descent has been found most commonly among materially rich hunter/gatherers,
small-scale farmers, and nomadic animal herders. The common factors for these types of
societies are small populations that usually have more than adequate food supplies. Until the
early 20th century, approximately 60% of all societies traced descent unilineally (either through
the mother or the father) . Since then, many of these societies have disappeared or have
slowly been transformed by more egalitarian and gender-equal belief systems.