List of matrilineal or matrilocal societies
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The following list includes societies that have been identified as matrilineal or matrilocal in ethnographic literature.
"Matrilineal" means kinship is passed down through the maternal line.
The Akans of Ghana, West Africa, are Matrilineal. Akans are the largest ethnic group in Ghana. They are made of the Akims, Asantes, Fantis, Akuapims, Kwahus, Denkyiras, Brongs, Akwamus, Krachis, etc.
"Matrilocal" means new families are established in proximity to the brides' extended family of origin, not that of the groom.
Note: separate in the marriage column refers to the practice of husbands and wives living in separate locations, often informally called walking marriages. See the articles for the specific cultures that practice this for further description.
Group name | Continent | Country / Region | Marriage | Lineage | Reference | (c. year) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Akan | Africa | Ghana | Both | Matrilineal | Meyer Fortes[1] | 1950 |
Alor | Asia | Indonesia | Cora du Bois | 1944 | ||
Bamenda | Africa | Cameroon | Patrilocal | Only Kom Matrilineal | Phyllis Kaberry | 1952 |
Batek | Asia | Malaysia | Patrilocal | 1974 | ||
Bijagós | Africa | Guinea-Bissau | Matrilineal | Luigi Scantarburlo | 1978 | |
Billava | Asia | India | Patrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Bontoc | Asia | Philippines | Albert Jenks |
1905 1974 | ||
Boyowan | Australasia | Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea | Patrilocal | Matrilineal | Bronisław Malinowski | 1916 |
Bribri | North America | Costa Rica | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | William More Gabb | 1875 |
Bunt | Asia | India | Patrilocal | Matrilineal | E Kathleen Gough | 1954 |
Danes | Europe | Læsø | Matrilocal | Matrilineal[2] | Bjarne Stoklund[3] | 1700-1900 |
Chambri | Australasia | Papua New Guinea | Margaret Mead | 1935 | ||
Ezhava | Asia | India | Both | Matrilineal | ||
Fore | Australasia | Papua New Guinea | Shirley Glasse (Lindenbaum) | 1963 | ||
Garo | Asia | India, Bangladesh | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Greek | Europe | various islands | Matrilocal | John Hawkins | to the end of the 18th century AD[4] | |
Hopi | North America | United States of America | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | Barbara Freire-Marreco | 1914 |
Huaorani[citation needed] | South America | Ecuador | John Man[citation needed] | 1982[citation needed] | ||
Iban | Asia | Borneo | Both | Neither | 1911 | |
Imazighen | Africa | North Sahara | George Peter Murdock | 1959 | ||
Iroquois | North America | North East North America | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | Lewis Henry Morgan | 1901 |
Jaintia | Asia | India | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Jívaro | South America | West Amazon | Rafael Karsten | 1926 | ||
Jews in the Kibbutzim | Israel | [5] | Matrilineal | Judith Buber Agassi[6] | 1989 | |
Karen | Asia | Burma | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | [7] | 1922 |
Kerinci | Asia | Indonesia | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | [8] | 1992 |
Khasi | Asia | India | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | [9] | 1914 |
Kuna people | South America | Matrilocal | ||||
!Kung San | Africa | Southern Africa | Marjorie Shostak | 1976 | ||
Marshallese | Oceania | Marshall Islands | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Maliku | Asia | India | Separate | Matrilineal | 1996 | |
Minangkabau | Asia | Indonesia | Separate | Matrilineal | Pieter Johannes Veth | 1882 |
Mosuo/Nakhi | Asia | China | Separate | Matrilineal | Joseph Francis Charles Rock | 1924 |
Nair | Asia | India | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | E Kathleen Gough | 1954 |
Navajo | North America | United States of America | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Ngazidja/Grande Comore | Africa | Comoros | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | [10] , Nicole-Claude Mathieu[11] |
1942 |
Nubians | Africa | Sudan | 1867 | |||
Ovambo | Africa | Namibia | Matrilineal | (Tuupainen)[12] | 1970 | |
Serer
|
Africa | Senegal, Gambia and Mauritania | Patrilocal | Both | Henry Gravrand[13] | 1990
1993 |
Siraya | Austronesia | Taiwan | Duolocal, uxorilocal | Matrilineal | & Candidius | 1995 |
Thai people | Asia | Matrilocal | ||||
Tlingit | North America | United States of America, and Canada | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | Aurel Krause | 1885 |
Vanatinai | Australasia | Papua New Guinea | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | 1981 | |
Wemale | Asia | Indonesia | Adolf E Jensen | 1939 | ||
Basques | Europe | Spain and France | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Chams | Asia | Vietnam, Cambodia | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | [15] | |
Rhade (Ê Đê) | Asia | Vietnam, Cambodia | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | [16] | |
Amis | Asia | Taiwan | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Han Taiwanese (antiquated, mostly rural) | Asia | Taiwan | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | [17] |
References[]
- ^ Val'Dman, A. V.; Kozlovskaia, M. M. (1975). "1950 Ashanti Kinship. In A.R. Radcliffe Brown. African systems of Kinship and Marriage. London: Oxford University Press". Zhurnal Nevropatologii I Psikhiatrii Imeni S.s. Korsakova (Moscow, Russia : 1952). 75 (11): 1710–7. PMID 1950.
- ^ only in informal everyday language.
- ^ Gårdene gik i arv på spindesiden. Kvinderne drev landbruget, medens mændene mest tog sig af strandinger og fiskeri og hjalp med pløjning og tærskning.
The farms were inherited in the distaff side. The women drive agriculture, while men most took care of shipwrecks and fishing and helped with plowing and threshing.- Stoklund, Bjarne: "Arbejde og kønsroller på Læsø o. 1200-1900" ISBN 87-88683-08-7
- "Kvindefællesskaber" (Anna Birte Ravn og Marianne Rostgård). ISBN 87-982062-1-4
- ^ Myers, Peter (November 23, 2001). "Aryan Invasions – Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Colin Renfew, Marija Gimbutas and Martin Bernal on the Indo-European invasions and the earlier Goddess cultures". Neither Aryan Nor Jew. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
Traces of matrilineal practices have been found in recent centuries in peripheral areas of the west and north of Europe, and in the Aegean islands. In a number of islands, including Lesbos, Lemnos, Naxos, and Kos, matrilineal succession to real property was the rule at the end of the 18th century A.D. The facts were reported by an English traveller, John Hawkins, who wrote: "In the large number of the islands, the eldest daughter takes as her inheritance a portion of the family house, together with its furniture, and one third of the share of the maternal property, which in reality in most of these cases constitutes the chief means of subsistence; the other daughters, when they marry off in succession, are likewise entitled to (a portion of) the family house and the same share of whatever property remains. These observations were applicable to the islands of Mytilin (Lesbos), Lemnos, Scopelo, Skyros, Syra, Zea Ipsera, Myconi, Paros, Naxia, Siphno, Santorini and Cos, where I have either collected my information in person or had obtained it through others."
- ^ see Jewish views of marriage
- ^ Agassi, Judith Buber, (1989) "Theories of Gender Equality: Lessons from the Israeli Kibbutz", Gender and Society, 3/2, 160-186.
- ^ Marshall, Harry Ignatius (1922). "The Karen People of Burma: A Study in Anthropology and Ethnology." Ohio State University Bulletin 26(13). ISBN 974-8496-86-4
- ^ C. W. Watson Kinship, Property and Inheritance in Kerinci, Central Sumatra 1992 ISBN 0 904938 19 0
- ^ The Khasis by P. R. T. Gurdon
- ^ Guy, Paul (October–December 1942). "Sur une coutume locale de droit musulman de l'Archipel des Comores". Revue algérienne, tunisienne et marocaine de législation et de jurisprudence (in French). pp. 78–79. Lay summary.
- ^ Gestin, Martine; Mathieu, Nicole-Claude (2007). Une maison sans fille est une maison morte (in French). . Lay summary.
- ^ Marriage in a matrilineal African tribe: A social anthropological study of marriage in the Ondonga tribe in Ovamboland.
- ^ (in French) Gravrand, Henry, "La civilisation sereer, vol. II : Pangool", Nouvelles éditions africaines, Dakar (1990), pp 193-4, ISBN 2-7236-1055-1
- ^ (in French) Becker, Charles, "Vestiges historiques, témoins matériels du passé dans les pays sereer", Dakar (1993), CNRS - ORS TO M Excerpt (Retrieved : 23 July 2012)
- ^ Phuong, Tran Ky; Lockhart, Bruce (2011-01-01). The Cham of Vietnam: History, Society and Art. NUS Press. ISBN 978-9971-69-459-3.
- ^ Lebar, Frank M.; Gerald C. Hickey; John K. Musgrave (1964). Ethnic Groups of Mainland Southeast Asia. New Haven, Connecticut: Human Relations Area Files Press. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-25414.
- ^ Kleinman, A.; Lin, T. Y. (29 June 2013). Normal and Abnormal Behavior in Chinese Culture. ISBN 9789401749862.
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