Avunculocal residence is a post-marital residence rule in which a married couple lives with or near the husband's mother's brother, rather than either spouse's parents. It occurs in roughly 4 percent of the world's documented societies and is found almost exclusively in matrilineal systems, where descent, property and status pass through the mother's line; the pattern allows a young man to be raised in his father's household as a boy but to relocate to his maternal uncle's household as an heir in adulthood. The clearest and best-studied case is the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea, documented by Bronisław Malinowski, where a chief's own son does not inherit his position; his sister's son does. The institution is closely tied to the broader 'avunculate,' the special social bond between a man and his sister's children found across many matrilineal societies.
Facts
Descent RuleSourced to the subject's own accountMatrilineal descent: the pattern is defined by and named for its association with matriliny, occurring where inheritance and status pass through the mother's line, with a couple residing near the husband's mother's brother. 1 Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountDocumented among the Trobriand Islanders (Papua New Guinea); also recorded among Kazakh and Kyrgyz peoples, Apache groups of the US Southwest, Chamorros of the Mariana Islands, Taíno of the Caribbean, and Tsonga, Tongan and Nama peoples. A minority pattern, roughly 4 percent of documented societies. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
In matrilineal societies, formal authority over children commonly rests with the mother's brother rather than the biological father, which is exactly the residence pattern avunculocal residence names; the two commonly co-occur, though neither entails the other.
Held Differently
Both residence patterns are found chiefly in matrilineal societies but differ in whose household a couple joins: the wife's parents here versus the husband's maternal uncle there.
Shaped By
Lévi-Strauss incorporated the avunculate (the mother's-brother relationship central to avunculocal residence) into his structural theory of kinship, the 'atom of kinship' analysis.
Sources
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