Bilateral descent

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The Himba of Namibia live under a tribal structure based on bilateral descent. Himba women.jpg
The Himba of Namibia live under a tribal structure based on bilateral descent.

Bilateral descent is a system of family lineage in which the relatives on the mother's side and father's side are equally important for emotional ties or for transfer of property or wealth. It is a family arrangement where descent and inheritance are passed equally through both parents. [1] Families who use this system trace descent through both parents simultaneously and recognize multiple ancestors, but unlike with cognatic descent it is not used to form descent groups. [2]

While bilateral descent is increasingly the norm in Western culture, traditionally it is only found among relatively few groups in West Africa, India, Australia, Indonesia, Melanesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Polynesia. Anthropologists believe that a tribal structure based on bilateral descent helps members live in extreme environments because it allows individuals to rely on two sets of families dispersed over a wide area. [3] Historically, North Germanic peoples in Scandinavia in the Late Iron Age and Early Middle Ages had a bilateral society, where the descent of both parents were important. [4] Genealogies featuring the legendary danish king Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye gives him the matronymic name Áslaugsson due to his mother Aslaug's connection to Völsungs.

Under bilateral descent, every tribe member belongs to two clans, one through the father (a patriclan) and another through the mother (a matriclan). For example, among the Himba, clans are led by the eldest male in the clan. Sons live with their father's clan and when daughters marry they go to live with the clan of their husband. However inheritance of wealth does not follow the patriclan but is determined by the matriclan i.e. a son does not inherit his father's cattle but his maternal uncle's instead. [3] [ dead link ]

Javanese people, the largest ethnic group in Indonesia, also adopt a bilateral kinship system. [5] [6] Nonetheless, it has some tendency toward patrilineality. [7]

The Dimasa Kachari people of Northeast India has a system of dual family clan. The Urapmin people, a small tribe in Papua New Guinea, have a system of kinship classes known as tanum miit. The classes are inherited bilaterally from both parents. Since they also practice strict endogamy, most Urapmin belong to all of the major classes, creating great fluidity and doing little to differentiate individuals. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline, their mother's lineage, and which can involve the inheritance of property and titles. A matriline is a line of descent from a female ancestor to a descendant of either gender in which the individuals in all intervening generations are mothers. In a matrilineal descent system, an individual is considered to belong to the same descent group as their mother. This ancient matrilineal descent pattern is in contrast to the currently more popular pattern of patrilineal descent from which a family name is usually derived. The matriline of historical nobility was also called their enatic or uterine ancestry, corresponding to the patrilineal or "agnatic" ancestry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Himba people</span> Ethnic group of Namibia

The Himba are an indigenous people with an estimated population of about 50,000 people living in northern Namibia, in the Kunene Region and on the other side of the Kunene River in southern Angola. There are also a few groups left of the OvaTwa, who are also OvaHimba, but are hunter-gatherers. Culturally distinguishable from the Herero people, the OvaHimba are a semi-nomadic, pastoralist people and speak OtjiHimba, a variety of Herero, which belongs to the Bantu family within Niger–Congo. The OvaHimba are semi-nomadic as they have base homesteads where crops are cultivated, but may have to move within the year depending on rainfall and where there is access to water.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kinship</span> Web of human social relationships

In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that the study of kinship is the study of what humans do with these basic facts of life – mating, gestation, parenthood, socialization, siblingship etc. Human society is unique, he argues, in that we are "working with the same raw material as exists in the animal world, but [we] can conceptualize and categorize it to serve social ends." These social ends include the socialization of children and the formation of basic economic, political and religious groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korowai people</span> Indigenous ethnic group of Indonesia

The Korowai, also called the Kolufo, are the people who live in southeastern Papua in the Indonesian provinces of South Papua and Highland Papua. Specifically their tribal area is split by the borders of Boven Digoel Regency, Mappi Regency, Asmat Regency, and Yahukimo Regency. They number about 3,000 people.

Endogamy is the cultural practice of mating—usually in the form of marriage—within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting those from others as unsuitable for marriage or other close interpersonal relationships. Whereas endogamy refers to marriage within the group, its opposite, exogamy, describes the social norm of marriage outside of the group.

Iroquois kinship is a kinship system named after the Haudenosaunee people, also known as the Iroquois, whose kinship system was the first one described to use this particular type of system. Identified by Lewis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, the Iroquois system is one of the six major kinship systems.

Eskimo kinship or Inuit kinship is a category of kinship used to define family organization in anthropology. Identified by Lewis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, the Eskimo system was one of six major kinship systems. The system of English-language kinship terms falls into the Eskimo type.

Ambilineality is a form of kinship affiliation of cognatic descent that relies on self-defined affiliation within a given social system, meaning individuals have the choice to be affiliated with their mother's or father's group. Common features of societies that practice ambilineality are a shared set of land, communal responsibilities, and collective ownership of some segments of wealth and debt in their societies. This system of descent is distinct from more common genealogical structures in that rather than determining affiliation and descent using the standard determinants of biological and genealogical relation, it instead relies heavily on voluntary affiliation with one's group, oftentimes being determined by factors including residence.

In the tribal law of the Noongar, an indigenous Australian people, a kinship classification system determined descent and inheritance, and enforced restrictions on intermarriage between certain groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digo people</span> Ethnic group from Tanzania and Kenya

The Digo are a Bantu ethnic and linguistic group based near the Indian Ocean coast between Mombasa in southern Kenya and northern Tanga in Tanzania. In 1994 the Digo population was estimated to total 305,000, with 217,000 ethnic Digo living in Kenya and 88,000 in Tanzania. Digo people, nearly all Muslims, speak the Digo language, called Chidigo by speakers, a Bantu language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yakö people</span>

The Yakurr live in five compact towns in Cross River State, Nigeria. They were formally known as Umor, Ekoli, Ilomi, Nkoibolokom and Yakurr be Ibe. Due to linguistic problems encountered by the early European visitors, the settlements have come to be known by their mispronounced versions – Ugep, Ekori, Idomi, Nko and Mkpani. In the latter, it is a product of yakpanikpani, a name, which Enang (1980) says was given to them by the Ugep people after being tricked in a conflict.

Kinship terminology is the system used in languages to refer to the persons to whom an individual is related through kinship. Different societies classify kinship relations differently and therefore use different systems of kinship terminology; for example, some languages distinguish between consanguine and affinal uncles, whereas others have only one word to refer to both a father and his brothers. Kinship terminologies include the terms of address used in different languages or communities for different relatives and the terms of reference used to identify the relationship of these relatives to ego or to each other.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sister exchange</span> Type of marriage

Sister exchange is a type of marriage agreement where two sets of siblings marry each other. In order to get married, a man needs to persuade his sister to marry the bride's brother. It is practised as a primary method of organising marriages in 3% of the world's societies: in Australia, Melanesia, Amazonia and Sub-Saharan Africa; and can replace other methods in 1.4% of the societies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Family</span> Group of related people

Family is a group of people related either by consanguinity or affinity. It forms the basis for social order. The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as members mature and learn to participate in the community. Historically, most human societies use family as the primary locus of attachment, nurturance, and socialization.

Tifal is an Ok language spoken in Papua New Guinea. Dialects are (1) Tifal (Tifalmin) and Urap (Urapmin) and (2) Atbal (Atbalmin).

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hazairin</span>

Hazairin was the Indonesia's Minister of Home Affairs from 30 July 1953 to 18 November 1954, serving in the First Ali Sastroamidjojo Cabinet.

Serer maternal clans or Serer matriclans are the maternal clans of the Serer people of Senegal, the Gambia and Mauritania. The Serer are both patrilineal and matrilineal. Inheritance depends on the nature of the asset being inherited – i.e. whether it is a maternal asset which requires maternal inheritance or paternal asset requiring paternal inheritance (kucarla). The Serer woman play a vital role in royal and religious affairs. In pre-colonial times until the abolition of their monarchies, a Serer king would be required to crown his mother, maternal aunt or sister as Lingeer (queen) after his own coronation. This re-affirms the maternal lineage to which they both belong (Tim). The Lingeer was very powerful and had her own army and palace. She was the queen of all women and presided over female cases. From a religious perspective, the Serer woman plays a vital role in Serer religion. As members of the Serer priestly class, they are among the guardians of Serer religion, sciences, ethics and culture. There are several Serer matriclans; not all of them are listed here. Alliance between matriclans in order to achieve a common goal was, and still is very common. The same clan can be called a different name depending on which part of Serer country one finds oneself in. Some of these matriclans form part of Serer mythology and dynastic history. The mythology afforded to some of these clans draws parallels with the Serer creation narrative, which posits that: the first human to be created was a female. Many Serers who adhere to the tenets of Serer religion believe these narratives to contain profound truths which are historic or pre-historic in nature.

Historical inheritance systems are different systems of inheritance among various people.

Detailed anthropological and sociological studies have been made about customs of patrilineal inheritance, where only male children can inherit. Some cultures also employ matrilineal succession, where property can only pass along the female line, most commonly going to the sister's sons of the decedent; but also, in some societies, from the mother to her daughters. Some ancient societies and most modern states employ egalitarian inheritance, without discrimination based on gender and/or birth order.

References

  1. Shepard, Jon; Greene, Robert W. (2003). Sociology and You. Ohio: Glencoe McGraw-Hill. pp. A–22. ISBN   0-07-828576-3. Archived from the original on 2010-03-08. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
  2. Stone, Linda (2006). Kinship and Gender: An Introduction. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. pp.  168–169. ISBN   978-0-8133-4302-0.
  3. 1 2 Ezzell, Carol (June 2001). "The Himba and the Dam". Scientific American. 284 (6): 80–90. Bibcode:2001SciAm.284f..80E. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0601-80. PMID   11396346. Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  4. Friðriksdóttir, Jóhanna Katrín (2020). Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World. London: Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 124.
  5. Ward, Kathryn B. (1990). Women workers and global restructuring . Cornell University Press. pp.  46. ISBN   978-0-87546-162-5.
  6. Emmerson, Donald K. (1999). Indonesia beyond Suharto: polity, economy, society, transition. M.E. Sharpe. p. 242. ISBN   978-1-56324-890-0.
  7. Koentjaraningrat (1984). Kebudayaan Jawa. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka. p. 153-158.
  8. Robbins, Joel (2004). Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Moral Torment in a Papua New Guinea Society . University of California Press. pp.  191–192. ISBN   0-520-23800-1.