Product Code Database
Matrilineality, at times called matriliny, is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which people identify 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 Kinship of either gender in which the individuals in all intervening generations are mothers. In a matrilineal descent system, individuals belong to the same descent group as their mothers. This 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.
In recent years, evolutionary biologists, geneticists and palaeoanthropologists have found indirect genetic and other evidence of early matriliny.Hrdy, S. B. 2009. Mothers and others. The evolutionary origins of mutual understanding. London and Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Knight, C. 2008. Early human kinship was matrilineal. In N. J. Allen, H. Callan, R. Dunbar and W. James (eds.), Early Human Kinship. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 61–82.Opie, K. and C. Power, 2009. Grandmothering and Female Coalitions. A basis for matrilineal priority? In N. J. Allen, H. Callan, R. Dunbar and W. James (eds.), Early Human Kinship. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 168–186.Chris Knight, 2012. Engels was Right: Early Human Kinship was Matrilineal. Some genetic data suggest that over millennia, female sub-Saharan African hunter-gatherers have lived with their maternal kin after marriage.Schlebusch, C.M. (2010) Genetic variation in Khoisan-speaking populations from southern Africa. Dissertation, University of Witwatersrand this is available online, see pages following p.68, Fig 3.18 and p.180-81, fig 4.23 and p.243, p.287 Also, when sisters and their mothers help each other with childcare, the descent line tends to be matrilineal. Biological anthropologists now largely agree that cooperative childcare helped the large human brain and human psychology to evolve.
Matriliny is often tied to matrilocality, which shows significant nuance. Pastoralists and farmers often gravitate toward patrilocality. However, studies show that hunter-gatherer societies have a flexible philopatry or practice multilocality; matrilocality and patrilocality are not the only possibilities. Flexibility leads to a more egalitarian society, as both men and women can choose with whom to live. So, for example, among the pygmy Aka people a young couple usually settles in the husband's camp after the birth of their first child. However, the husband can stay in the wife's community, where one of his brothers or sisters can join him. Kinship and residence in hunter-gatherer societies may thus be complex and multifaceted. Supporting this, a re-check of past data on hunter gatherers showed that about 40% of groups were bilocal, 22.9% matrilocal, and 25% patrilocal.
Genetic evidence shows matriliny, and matrilocality, among Celts in Iron Age Britain. As other data indicate patriarchy in the Early Bronze Age, this may indicate a rare patriarchal to matrifocal transition. There is evidence of matrilineal royal descent, from maternal uncle to nephew, in early Iron Age (ca. 500 BCE) Celtics in continental Europe. There is evidence of matriliny in Pre-Islamic Arabia among a subclan of the Amarite tribal confederation of Ancient Saba; the wider society there was overwhelmingly patrilineal. Genetic data has also established matriliny and matrilocality of an elite among Ancestral Pueblo People, from 8th to 11th century AD, in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. The initial people of Micronesia practiced matrilocality, as seen in ancient DNA. Ancient DNA from a late neolithic site in Northern China (Fujia in Shandong), dated around 2700 BCE, showed both matrilocality and possibly a general preference for the maternal bloodline as opposed to affinal (marital) kin.
"The principles governing inheritance stress sex, generation and age – that is to say, men come before women and seniors before juniors." When a woman's brothers are available, a consideration of generational seniority stipulates that the line of brothers be exhausted before the right to inherit lineage property passes down to the next senior genealogical generation of sisters' sons. Finally, "it is when all possible male heirs have been exhausted that the females" may inherit.
Each lineage controls the lineage land farmed by its members, functions together in the veneration of its ancestors, supervises marriages of its members, and settles internal disputes among its members.Owusu-Ansah, David (November 1994). http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field%28DOCID+gh0048%29, "Ghana: The Akan Group". This source, "Ghana"
on 10 July 2012.
The political units above are likewise grouped into eight larger groups called abusua (similar to ), named Aduana, Agona, Asakyiri, Asenie, Asona, Bretuo, Ekuona and Oyoko. The members of each abusua are united by their belief that they are all descended from the same ancient ancestress. Marriage between members of the same abusua is forbidden. One inherits or is a lifelong member of the lineage, the political unit, and the abusua of one's mother, regardless of one's gender and/or marriage. Note that members and their spouses thus belong to different abusuas, mother and children living and working in one household and their husband/father living and working in a different household.
According to this sourceashanti.com.au (before 2010). http://ashanti.com.au/pb/wp_8078438f.html, "Ashanti Home Page: The Ashanti Family unit"
on 26 June 2007. of further information about the Akan, "A man is strongly related to his mother's brother (wɔfa) but only weakly related to his father's brother. This must be viewed in the context of a polygamous society in which the mother/child bond is likely to be much stronger than the father/child bond. As a result, in inheritance, a man's nephew (sister's son) will have priority over his own son. Uncle-nephew relationships therefore assume a dominant position."
Certain other aspects of the Akan culture are determined patrilineally rather than matrilineally. There are 12 patrilineal Ntoro (which means spirit) groups, and everyone belongs to their father's Ntoro group but not to his (matrilineal) family lineage and abusua. Each patrilineal Ntoro group has its own surnames,de Witte (2001), p. 55 shows such surnames in a family tree, which provides a useful example of names. taboos, ritual purifications, and etiquette.
A recent (2001) book provides this update on the Akan: Some families are changing from the above abusua structure to the nuclear family.de Witte (2001), p. 53. Housing, childcare, education, daily work, and elder care etc. are then handled by that individual family rather than by the abusua or clan, especially in the city.de Witte (2001), p. 73. The above taboo on marriage within one's abusua is sometimes ignored, but "clan membership" is still important, with many people still living in the abusua framework presented above.
In Serer culture, inheritance is both matrilineal and patrilineal. It all depends on the asset being inherited – i.e. whether the asset is a paternal asset – requiring paternal inheritance ( kucarla ) or a maternal asset – requiring maternal inheritance ( den yaay or ƭeen yaay Becker, Charles: "Vestiges historiques, trémoins matériels du passé clans les pays sereer", Dakar (1993), CNRS – ORS TO M. Excerpt (Retrieved : 4 August 2012)). The actual handling of these maternal assets (such as jewelry, land, livestock, equipment or furniture, etc.) is discussed in the subsection Role of the Tokoor of one of the above-listed main articles.
on 10 December 2012. and are (still, in 2007) "largely matrilineal".Spain, Daphne (1992). Gendered Spaces. University of North Carolina Press. ; p. 57. The Tuareg are Muslim, but mixed with a "heavy dose" of their pre-existing beliefs including matriliny.
Tuareg women enjoy high status within their society, compared with their Arab counterparts and with other Berber tribes: Tuareg social status is transmitted through women, with residence often matrilocal. Most women could read and write, while most men were illiterate, concerning themselves mainly with herding livestock and other male activities. The livestock and other movable property were owned by the women, whereas personal property is owned and inherited regardless of gender. In contrast to most other Muslim cultural groups, men wear veils but women do not. This custom is discussed in more detail in the Tuareg article's clothing section, which mentions it may be the protection needed against the blowing sand while traversing the Sahara.Bradshaw Foundation (2007 or later). http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/tuareg/index.php, "The Tuareg of the Sahara"
Schlegel explains why there was female superiority as that the Hopi believed in "life as the highest good ... with the female principle ... activated in women and in Mother Earth ... as its source" and that the Hopi "were not in a state of continual war with equally matched neighbors"Schlegel, Alice, Hopi Gender Ideology of Female Superiority, op. cit., p. 49. and "had no standing army" so that "the Hopi lacked the spur to masculine superiority" and, within that, as that women were central to institutions of clan and household and predominated "within the economic and social systems (in contrast to male predominance within the political and ceremonial systems)", the Clan Mother, for example, being empowered to overturn land distribution by men if she felt it was unfair,Schlegel, Alice, Hopi Gender Ideology of Female Superiority, op. cit., p. 50. since there was no "countervailing ... strongly centralized, male-centered political structure".
Other Iroquoian-speaking peoples such as the Wyandot people and the Meherrin, that were never part of the Iroquois League, nevertheless have traditionally possessed a matrilineal family structure.
Villages were established and relocated as the clans farmed new sections of the land when soil fertility lessened and when they moved among their fishing and hunting grounds by seasons. The area was claimed as a part of the Dutch New Netherland province dating from 1614, where active trading in furs took advantage of the natural pass west, but the Lenape prevented permanent settlement beyond what is now Jersey City.
"Early Europeans who first wrote about these Indians found matrilineal social organization to be unfamiliar and perplexing. As a result, the early records are full of 'clues' about early Lenape society, but were usually written by observers who did not fully understand what they were seeing."This quote is from Lenape's Society section.
Archaeological data supports the theory that during the Neolithic period (7000 to 2000 BCE) in China, Chinese matrilineal clans evolved into the usual patrilineal families by passing through a transitional patrilineal clan phase. Evidence includes some "richly furnished" tombs for young women in the early Neolithic Yangshao culture, whose multiple other collective burials imply a matrilineal clan culture. Toward the late Neolithic period, when burials were apparently of couples, "a reflection of patriarchy", an increasing elaboration of presumed chiefs' burials is reported.
Relatively isolated ethnic minorities such as the Mosuo (Na) in southwestern China are highly matrilineal.
In the matrilineal system of Kerala, southern India, the family lived together in a tharavadu which was composed of a mother, her brothers and younger sisters, and her children in a system called as Marumakkathayam. The oldest male member was known as the Karnavar and was the head of the household, managing the family estate. Lineage was traced through the mother, and the children belonged to the mother's family. The surnames would be from the maternal side and all family property was jointly owned. In the event of a partition, the shares of the children were clubbed with that of the mother. The Karnavar's property was inherited by his sisters' sons rather than his own sons. Almost all the kingdoms in Kerala practised this system, with the Karnavar of the family becoming the king. The Arakkal kingdom of Kerala followed a similar matrilineal system of descent: the eldest member of the family, whether male or female, became its head and ruler. (For further information see the articles on Nair, Ambalavasi, Bunts and Billava). Amitav Ghosh has stated that, although there were numerous other matrilineal succession systems in communities of the south Indian coast, the Nairs "achieved an unparalleled eminence in the anthropological literature on matriliny". To access it via GoogleBooks, click on book title.
In the state Meghalaya, the Khasi people, Garo people, Pnar people have a long tradition of a largely matrilinear system in which the youngest daughter inherits the wealth of the parents and takes over their care.
The Minangs are one of the world's largest matrilineal societies/cultures/ethnic groups, with a population of 4 million in their home province West Sumatra in Indonesia and about 4 million elsewhere, mostly in Indonesia. The Minang people are well known within their country for their tradition of matriliny and for their "dedication to Islam" – despite Islam being "supposedly patrilineal". This well-known accommodation, between their traditional complex of customs, called adat, and their religion, was actually worked out to help end the Minangkabau 1821–37 Padri War.
The Minangkabau are a prime example of a matrilineal culture with female inheritance. With Islamic religious background of and places a greater number of men than women in positions of religious and political power. Inheritance and proprietorship pass from mother to daughter.
Besides Minangkabau, several other ethnics in Indonesia are also matrilineal and have similar culture as the Minangkabau. They are Suku Melayu Bebilang, Suku Kubu and Kerinci people. Suku Melayu Bebilang live in Kota Teluk Kuantan, Kabupaten Kuantan Singingi (also known as Kuansing), Riau. They have similar culture as the Minang. Suku Kubu people live in Jambi and South Sumatera. They are around 200 000 people. Suku Kerinci people mostly live in Kabupaten Kerinci, Jambi. They are around 300 000 people.
The Mangur clan of the, Culturally, Mokri tribal confederation and, politically, Bolbas Federation is an enatic clan, meaning members of the clan can only inherit their mothers last name and are considered to be a part of the mothers family. The entire Mokri tribe may have also practiced this form of enaticy before the collapse of their emirate and its direct rule from the Iranian or Ottoman state, or perhaps the tradition started because of depopulation in the area due to raids.
Patriarchal social structures apply to all of Sri Lanka, but in the Eastern Province are mixed with the matrilineal features summarized in the paragraph above and described more completely in the following subsection:
According to Kanchana N. Ruwanpura, Eastern Sri Lanka "is highly regarded even among" feminist economists "for the relatively favourable position of its women, reflected" in women's equal achievements in Human Development Indices "(HDIs) as well as matrilineal and" bilateral "inheritance patterns and property rights".Ruwanpura, (2006), p.1. Accessible online as above.Humphries, 1993, p. 228.
She also conversely argues that " feminist economists need to be cautious in applauding Sri Lanka's gender-based achievements and/or matrilineal communities",Ruwanpura, 2006, p. 3. Accessible online as above. because these matrilineal communities coexist with " patriarchal structures and ideologies" and the two "can be strange but ultimately compatible bedfellows",Ruwanpura, 2006, p. 10 and see p. 6 ("prevalence of patriarchal structures and ideologies"). Accessible online as above. as follows:
She "positions Sri Lankan women within gradations of patriarchy by beginning with a brief overview of the main religious traditions," Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam, "and the ways in which patriarchal interests are promoted through religious practice" in Eastern Sri Lanka (but without being as repressive as classical patriarchy).Ruwanpura, 2006, pp. 4–5. Accessible online as above. Thus, "feminists have claimed that Sri Lankan women are relatively well positioned in the" South Asian region,Ruwanpura, 2006, p. 4. Accessible online as above.Agarwal, Bina (1996). A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. (First edition was 1994.) despite "patriarchal institutional laws that ... are likely to work against the interests of women," which is a "co-operative conflict" between women and these laws.Ruwanpura, 2006, p. 182. (Clearly "female-heads have no legal recourse" from these laws which state "patriarchal interests".)Ruwanpura, 2006, p. 182 (both quotations). For example, "the economic welfare of female-heads heads depends upon networks" ("of kin and matrilineal community"), "networks that mediate the patriarchal-ideological nexus."Ruwanpura, 2006, pp. 145–146. She wrote that "some female heads possessed" "feminist consciousness"Ruwanpura, 2006, p. 142 (both quotations). and, at the same time, that "in many cases female-heads are not vociferous feminists ... but rather 'victims' of patriarchal relations and structures that place them in precarious positions.... while they have held their ground ... and provided for their children".Ruwanpura, 2006, p. 37.
On the other hand, she also wrote that feminists including Malathi de Alwis and Kumari Jayawardena have criticized a romanticized view of women's lives in Sri Lanka put forward by Yalman, and mentioned the Sri Lankan case "where young women raped (usually by a man) are married-off/required to cohabit with the rapists!"Ruwanpura, 2006, p. 76 n. 7.
On North Vietnam, according to Alessandra Chiricosta, the legend of Âu Cơ is said to be evidence of "the presence of an original 'matriarchy' ... and it led to the double kinship system, which developed there .... and combined matrilineal and patrilineal patterns of family structure and assigned equal importance to both lines."Chiricosta, Alessandra, Following the Trail of the Fairy-Bird: The Search For a Uniquely Vietnamese Women's Movement, in Roces, Mina, & Louise P. Edwards, eds., Women's Movements in Asia: Feminisms and Transnational Activism (London or Oxon: Routledge, pbk. 2010 ()), p. 125 and see p. 126 (single quotation marks so in original) (author Chiricosta philosopher & historian of religions, esp. intercultural philosophy, religious & cultural dialogue, gender, & anthropology, & taught at La Sapienza (univ.), Urbaniana (univ.), & Roma Tre (univ.), all in Italy, School of Oriental & African Studies, & Univ. of Ha Noi).
The Diyari people of South Australia are described by Francis James Gillen and Walter Baldwin Spencer in their 1899 book The Native Tribes of Central Australia (in which the name is spelled Dieri) as counting their descent "in the female line".
The Tiwi people living on the Tiwi Islands of Australia's Northern Territory base their social structure on matrilineal kinship groups. Traditional marriage practices have persisted in spite of the presence of Christian missionaries on the islands.
The origins and date-of-origin of matrilineal descent in Judaism are uncertain. Orthodox Judaism maintains that matrilineal descent is an Oral Law from at least the time of the Receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai (c. 1310 BCE).Numbers Rabbah 19:3 According to some modern academic opinions, it was likely instituted in either the early Tannaim (c. 10–70 CE) or the time of Ezra (c. 460 BCE).
In practice, Jewish denominations define "Who is a Jew?" via descent in different ways. All denominations of Judaism have protocols for conversion for those who are not Jewish by descent.
Orthodox JudaismSee Rabbi Moses Feinstein's re-affirmation of matrilineal descent, Elberg, Rabbi S., September, 1984, HaPardes Rabbinical Journal, Hebrew, vol.59, Is.1, p. 21. and Conservative Judaism still practice matrilineal descent. Karaite Judaism, which rejects the Oral Law, generally practices patrilineal descent. Reconstructionist Judaism has recognized Jews of patrilineal descent since 1968.
In 1983, the Central Conference of American Rabbis of Reform Judaism passed a resolution waiving the need for formal conversion for anyone with at least one Jewish parent, provided that either (a) one is raised as a Jew, by Reform standards, or (b) one engages in an appropriate act of public identification, formalizing a practice that had been common in Reform synagogues for at least a generation. This 1983 resolution departed from the Reform Movement's previous position requiring formal conversion to Judaism for children without a Jewish mother. However, the closely associated Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism has rejected this resolution and requires formal conversion for anyone without a Jewish mother. Reform Judaism in Israel: Progress and Prospects
The ancient historian Herodotus is cited by Robert Graves in his translations of Greek myths as attesting that the Herodotus, before 425 BCE. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_Herodotus/Book_1, "History of Herodotus". Graves's notation is "i.173" meaning in Book 1 – Scroll down to paragraph 173 to find the (matrilineal) Lycians.Graves, Robert (1955, 1960). The Greek Myths, Vol. 1. Penguin Books. ; p. 296 (myth #88, comment #2). of their times "still reckoned" by matrilineal descent, or were matrilineal, as were the .Graves 1955,1960; p. 256 (myth #75, comment #5).
In Greek mythology, while the royal function was a male privilege, power devolution often came through women, and the future king inherited power through marrying the queen heiress. This is illustrated in the myths where all the noblest men in Greece vie for the hand of Helen (and the throne of Sparta), as well as the Oedipian cycle where Oedipus weds the recently widowed queen at the same time he assumes the Theban kingship.
This trend also is evident in many Celtic mythology, such as the (Welsh) mabinogi stories of Culhwch and Olwen, or the (Irish) Ulster Cycle, most notably the key facts to the Cúchulainn cycle that Cúchulainn gets his final secret training with a warrior woman, Scáthach, and becomes the lover of her daughter; and the root of the Táin Bó Cuailnge, that while Ailill may wear the crown of Connacht, it is his wife Medb who is the real power, and she needs to affirm her equality to her husband by owning chattels as great as he does.
The Picts are widely cited as being matrilineal.http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsBritain/GaelsPictland.htm "thanks to the practise of matrilineal descent followed by the Picts, and a large number of eligible would-be kings"http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsBritain/EnglandMercia.htm "the Picts are known as strong adherents to the concept of matrilineal descent"
A number of other Breton people stories also illustrate the motif. Even the King Arthur legends have been interpreted in this light by some. For example, the Round Table, both as a piece of furniture and as concerns the majority of knights belonging to it, was a gift to Arthur from Guinevere's father Leodegrance.
Arguments also have been made that matriliny lay behind various fairy tale plots which may contain the vestiges of folk traditions not recorded.
For instance, the widespread motif of a father who wishes to marry his own daughter—appearing in such tales as Allerleirauh, Donkeyskin, The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter, and The She-Bear—has been explained as his wish to prolong his reign, which he would lose after his wife's death to his son-in-law.Schlauch, Margaret (1969). Chaucer's Constance and Accused Queens. New York: Gordian Press. ; p. 43. More mildly, the hostility of kings to their daughter's suitors is explained by hostility to their successors. In such tales as The Three May Peaches, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, or The Griffin, kings set dangerous tasks in an attempt to prevent the marriage.Schlauch 1969, p. 45.
Fairy tales with hostility between the mother-in-law and the heroine—such as Mary's Child, The Six Swans, and Perrault's Sleeping Beauty—have been held to reflect a transition between a matrilineal society, where a man's loyalty was to his mother, and a patrilineal one, where his wife could claim it, although this interpretation is predicated on such a transition being a normal development in societies.Schlauch 1969, p. 34.
on 20 July 2012.
Americas
Bororo
The Bororo people of Brazil and Bolivia live in matrilineal clans, with husbands moving to live with their wives' extended families.
Bribri
The clan system of the Bribri people of Costa Rica and Panama is matrilineal; that is, a child's clan is determined by the clan his or her mother belongs to. Only women can inherit land.
Cabécar
The social organization of the Cabécar people of Costa Rica is predicated on matrilineal clans in which the mother is the head of household. Each matrilineal clan controls marriage possibilities, regulates land tenure, and determines property inheritance for its members.
Guna
In the traditional culture of the Guna people of Panama and Colombia, families are matrilinear and matrilocal, with the groom moving to become part of the bride's family. The groom also takes the last name of the bride.
Hopi
The Hopi people (in what is now the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona), according to Alice Schlegel, had as its "gender ideology ... one of female superiority, and it operated within a social actuality of sexual equality."Alice Schlegel, Hopi Gender Ideology of Female Superiority, in Quarterly Journal of Ideology: "A Critique of the Conventional Wisdom", vol. VIII, no. 4, 1984, p. 44 and see pp. 44–52 (essay based partly on "seventeen years of fieldwork among the Hopi", per p. 44 n. 1) (author of Dep't of Anthropology, Univ. of Ariz., Tucson). According to LeBow (based on Schlegel's work), in the Hopi, "gender roles ... are egalitarian .... and neither sex is inferior."LeBow, Diana, Rethinking Matriliny Among the Hopi, op. cit., p. 8. LeBow concluded that Hopi women "participate fully in ... political decision-making."LeBow, Diana, Rethinking Matriliny Among the Hopi, op. cit., p. 18. According to Schlegel, "the Hopi no longer live as they are described here"Schlegel, Alice, Hopi Gender Ideology of Female Superiority, op. cit., p. 44 n. 1. and "the attitude of female superiority is fading". Schlegel said the Hopi "were and still are matrilinial"Schlegel, Alice, Hopi Gender Ideology of Female Superiority, op. cit., p. 45. and "the household ... was matrilocal".
Iroquois
The Iroquois, combining five to six Native American Iroquois nations or tribes before the United States became a nation, operated by The Great Binding Law of Peace, a constitution by which women retained matrilineal-rights and participated in the League's political decision-making, including deciding whether to proceed to war,Jacobs, Renée E., Iroquois Great Law of Peace and the United States Constitution: How the Founding Fathers Ignored the Clan Mothers, in American Indian Law Review, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 497–531, esp. pp. 498–509 (© author 1991). through what may have been a matriarchyJacobs, Renée, Iroquois Great Law of Peace and the United States Constitution, in American Indian Law Review, op. cit., pp. 506–507. or "gyneocracy".Jacobs, Renée, Iroquois Great Law of Peace and the United States Constitution, in American Indian Law Review, op. cit., p. 505 & p. 506 n. 38, quoting Carr, L., The Social and Political Position of Women Among the Huron-Iroquois Tribes, Report of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology, p. 223 (1884). The dates of this constitution's operation are unknown: the League was formed in approximately 1000–1450, but the constitution was oral until written in about 1880.Jacobs, Renée, Iroquois Great Law of Peace and the United States Constitution, in American Indian Law Review, op. cit., p. 498 & n. 6. The League still exists.
Kogi
The Kogi people of northern Colombia practice bilateral inheritance, with certain rights, names or associations descending matrilineally.
Lenape
Occupied for 10,000 years by Native Americans, the land that is present-day New Jersey was overseen by of the Lenape, who farmed, fished, and hunted upon it. The pattern of their culture was that of a matrilineal agricultural and mobile hunting society that was sustained with fixed, but not permanent, settlements in their matrilineal clan territories. Leadership by men was inherited through the maternal line, and the women elders held the power to remove leaders of whom they disapproved.
Mandan
The Mandan people of the northern Great Plains of the United States historically lived in matrilineal extended family lodges.
Naso
The Naso (Teribe or Térraba) people of Panama and Costa Rica describe themselves as a matriarchal community, although their monarchy has traditionally been inherited in the male line.
Navajo
The Navajo people of the American southwest are a matrilineal society in which kinship, children, livestock and family histories are passed down through the female. In marriage the groom moved to live with the brides family. Children also came from their mother's clan living in hogans of the females family.
Tanana Athabaskan
The Tanana Athabaskan people, the original inhabitants of the Tanana River basin in Alaska and Canada, traditionally lived in matrilineal semi-nomadic bands.
Tsenacommacah (Powhatan Confederacy)
The Powhatan and other tribes of the Tsenacommacah, also known as the Powhatan Confederacy, practiced a version of male-preference matrilineal seniority, favoring brothers over sisters in the current generation (but allowing sisters to inherit if no brothers remained), but passing to the next generation through the eldest female line. In A Map of Virginia John Smith of Jamestown explains:His [Chief Powhatan's] kingdome descendeth not to his sonnes nor children: but first to his brethren, whereof he hath 3 namely Opitchapan, Opechancanough, and Catataugh; and after their decease to his sisters. First to the eldest sister, then to the rest: and after them to the heires male and female of the eldest sister; but never to the heires of the males.Smith, John. A Map of Virginia. Oxford: Joseph Barnes, 1612. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/jamestown-browse?id=J1008 , also Repr. in The Complete Works of John Smith (1580–1631). Ed. Philip L. Barbour. Chapel Hill: University Press of Virginia, 1983. Vol. 1, pp. 305–63.
Upper Kuskokwim
The Upper Kuskokwim people are the original inhabitants of the Upper Kuskokwim River basin. They speak an Athabaskan language more closely related to Tanana than to the language of the Lower Kuskokkwim River basin. They were traditionally hunter-gatherers who lived in matrilineal semi-nomadic bands.
Wayuu
The Wayuu people of Colombia and Venezuela live in matrilineal clans, with paternal relationships in the background.
Asia
China
Originally, were derived matrilineally,linguistics.berkeley.edu (2004). http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/~rosemary/55-2004-names.pdf, "Naming practices". A PDF file with a section on "Chinese naming practices (Mak et al., 2003)". although by the time of the Shang dynasty (1600 to 1046 BCE) they had become patrilineal.
India
Of communities recognized in the national Constitution as Scheduled Tribes, "some ... are matriarchal and matrilineal", p. 9, citing Srinivas, Mysore Narasimhachar, The Cohesive Role of Sanskritization and Other Essays (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989), & Agarwal, Bina, A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994). "and thus have been known to be more egalitarian."Mukherjee, Sucharita Sinha, Women's Empowerment and Gender Bias in the Birth and Survival of Girls in Urban India, op. cit., p. 9. Some Hindu communities in Southwest India practiced matriliny, especially the Nair (1961). 9780520025295, University of California Press. ISBN 9780520025295 Accessible here, via GoogleBooks. (or Nayar), EzhavaThomas Nossiter (1982). Kerala's Identity: Unity and Diversity. In Communism in Kerala: A Study in Political Adaptation. University of California Press. . Retrieved 2011-06-09. P. 30. and some Namboothiri Brahmins in the state of Kerala, and the Bunts and Billava in the state of Karnataka. The system of inheritance was known as Marumakkathayam in the Nair community or Aliyasantana in the Bunt and the Billava community, and both communities were subdivided into . This system was exceptional in the sense that it was one of the few traditional systems in India that gave women some liberty and the right to property.
Indonesia
In the Minangs matrilineal clan culture in Indonesia, a person's clan name is important in their marriage and their other cultural-related events.Sanday, Peggy Reeves (2004). Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy. Cornell University Press. . Parts of this book are available online at books.google.comFitzsimmons, Caitlin (21Oct09). http://www.roamingtales.com/2009/10/21/a-matrilineal-islamic-society-in-sumatra/, "A matrilineal, Islamic society in Sumatra"
on 2 February 2013. Two totally unrelated people who share the same clan name can never be married because they are considered to be from the same clan mother (unless they come from distant villages). Likewise, when Minangs meet total strangers who share the same clan name, anywhere in Indonesia, they could theoretically expect to feel that they are distant relatives.Sanday 2004, p.67 Minang people do not have a family name or surname; neither is one's important clan name included in one's name; instead one's given name is the only name one has.Sanday 2004, p.241
Kurds
Matriliny was occasionally practiced by mainstream Sorani, Zazas, Feyli, Gorani people, and Alevi Kurds, though the practice was much rarer among non-Alevi Kurmanji-speaking Kurds.
Malaysia
A culture similar to lareh bodi caniago, practiced by the Minangkabau, is the basis for adat perpatih practices in the state of Negeri Sembilan and parts of Malacca as a product of West Sumatran migration into the Malay Peninsula in the 15th century.
Sri Lanka
Matriliny among the Muslims and Tamils in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka arrived from Kerala, India via Muslim traders before 1200 CE.Ruwanpura, Kanchana N. (2006). Matrilineal Communities, Patriarchal Realities: A Feminist Nirvana Uncovered. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, paperback ()(fieldwork in 1998–'99 during the Sri Lankan civil war, per p. 45); see p. 51.This page 51 of the Ruwanpura book is accessible online via Google Books (books.google.com). The book's TOC and pages 1–11 and 50–62 are currently accessible.McGilvray, Dennis B. (1989). "Households in Akkaraipattu: Dowry and Domestic Organization among Matrilineal Tamils and Moors of Sri Lanka," in J. N. Gray and D. J. Mearns (eds.) Society From the Inside Out: Anthropological Perspectives on the South Asian Household, pp. 192–235. London: Sage Publications. Matriliny here includes kinship and social organization, inheritance and property rights.Humphries, Jane (1993). "Gender Inequality and Economic Development," in Dieter Bos (ed) Economics in a Changing World, Volume 3: Public Policy and Economic Organization. New York: St. Martin's Press; pp. 218–33.Ruwanpura, 2006, p. 1. Accessible online as above. For example, "the mother's dowry property and/or house is passed on to the eldest daughter."Ruwanpura, 2006, p. 53. Accessible online as above.McGilvray, 1989, pp. 201–2. The Sinhalese people are the third ethnic group in eastern Sri Lanka,Ruwanpura, 2006, pp. 3–4(accessible online as above) and p. 39. and have a kinship system which is "intermediate" between that of matriliny and that of patriliny,Ruwanpura, 2006, p. 72.Yalman, Nur (1971). Under the Bo Tree: Studies in Caste, Kinship, and Marriage in the Interior of Ceylon. Berkeley: University of California Press. along with "bilateral inheritance", intermediate between matrilineal and patrilineal inheritance.Ruwanpura, 2006, p. 71. While the first two groups speak the Tamil language, the third group speaks the Sinhala language. The Tamils largely identify with Hinduism, the Sinhalese being primarily Buddhist.Ruwanpura, 2006, pp. 3–4. Accessible online as above. The three groups are about equal in population size.Ruwanpura, 2006, p. 39.
Vietnam
Most ethnic groups classified as "(Montagnards, Malayo-Polynesian and Austroasian)" are matrilineal.
Australia
The Arabana people of South Australia are described by Francis Gillen and Walter Baldwin Spencer in their 1899 book The Native Tribes of Central Australia (in which the name is spelled Urabunna) as counting their descent "in the female line".
Europe
Ancient Greece
While men held positions of religious and political power, the Spartan constitution mandated that inheritance and proprietorship pass from mother to daughter.Archived at Ghostarchive and the
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Wayback Machine:
Ancient Scotland
In Pictish society, succession in leadership (later kingship) was matrilineal, with the reigning chief succeeded by either his brother or perhaps a nephew but not through patrilineal succession of father to son.
Oceania
Some oceanic societies, such as the Marshallese and the Trobrianders, Malinowski, Bronisław. Argonauts Of The Western Pacific, esp. or only chaps. I, II, & VI. the Palauans, The Palauan culture the Yapese people The Yapese kinship and the Siuai, are characterized by matrilineal descent. The sister's sons or the brothers of the decedent are commonly the successors in these societies.
Matrilineal identification within Judaism
Matriliny in Judaism or matrilineal descent in Judaism is the tracing of Judaism descent through the maternal line. Close to all Jewish communities have followed matrilineal descent from at least early Tannaim (c. 10–70 CE) times through modern times.Reviewed by Louis Jacobs, [11] Originally published in Judaism 34.1 (Winter 1985), 55–59.
Exception for the enslaved in the United States
In the United States, the offspring of enslaved women inherited their mother's status. A significant consequence of this is that children resulting from rape or unions between enslaved women and their owners did not have any of the rights of the father as they would have had under the patrilineal succession that applied to everyone but the enslaved.
In mythology
Certain ancient myths have been argued to expose ancient traces of matrilineal customs that existed before historical records.
See also
Notes
Further reading
|
|
