Descent Systems

The rules by which a society traces group membership and inheritance through one or both parental lines, the core typology of unilineal and bilateral descent used throughout kinship studies: patrilineal descent through the father line, matrilineal descent through the mother line, and bilateral descent recognizing both. Belongs here: a named rule for tracing lineage or group membership. Does not belong here: a rule about where a married couple lives, grouped under Postmarital Residence Patterns, even though descent and residence rules often correlate in a given society and are frequently discussed together in the literature.