Unilineal Descent: Matrilineal

The second major unilineal descent form is matrilineal. Fewer cultures have matrilineal descent than patrilineal. Almost all societies that have matrilineal descent were or are horticultural, although the majority of horticultural societies are patrilineal. In matrilineal descent, remember, kinship can only be traced "through" females. The same two rules apply:

• The lineage is exogamous (so that husband and wife are never of the same lineage).
• Everyone takes their mother's matrilineage (so that brothers and sisters are always in the same matrilineage). Men take their matrilineage from their mother, but a man's children will take their matrilineage from his wife. Women take their matrilineage from their mother also, and a woman's children will take their matrilineage from her, since kinship can pass "through" females, but not "through" males.

Below is a matrilineal descent system, with those in Ego's matrilineage indicated by red.

Ego's Matrilineage

Once again, please note that Ego is not related to everyone on his mother's side, as their are many possible consanguineal "kin", including his mother's brother's kids (cross cousins), that are not in Ego's matrilineage. And there are many males in a matrilineage, since a matrilineage includes every woman's brothers and sons.

Once again, as noted in the previous lesson on patrilineal descent, Ego's cross cousins will never be in his lineage, while his mother's sister's children (parallel cousins) will definitely be in his lineage. Preferred cross cousin marriage is again very common in matrilineal systems, and if Ego's parents are indeed cross cousins, than Ego's father's brother probably either married Ego's mother's sister, or at least another woman in Ego's matrilineage. If so, the parallel cousins on Ego's father's side are also in his lineage. It makes sense than that Ego would give his parallel cousins on both sides the brother/sister terms, as he does in the Iroquois terminology system. The Iroquois, a large complex Native American culture, are one of the best known matrilineal cultures.

Remember, if you are still confused about unilineal descent after reading both the text (Chapter 8) and my lessons, including the power point on matrilineal descent, you might want to try the online kinship tutorial.