Descent Systems: Tracing Your Heritage
Determining where you come from is a very basic need held by most people, and tracing your ancestry can fill this need. There are different methods of tracing lineage. A person can use bilateral kinship or unilineal kinship descent systems, and they can trace their heritage through matrilineal or patrilineal descent groups.
A unilineal descent system is a process used to determine heritage “exclusively through either the mother’s or father’s line[age].” (Haviland, 2002, p. 492). Unilineal descent provides “security and stability for its members” by establishing a continuous lineage that links individual members to the family regardless of births or deaths. It is intended to be a source of “support and aid” and helps resolve conflicts between its members and other lineage groups. Unilineal descent groups often own or claim rights to a specific geographical area, or territory, and determine who should marry whom. These marriages are often used to form alliances and phratries. In addition to all these responsibilities, unilineal descent systems also provide religious and family mythologies to its members and help maintain a common belief system. (Searles and Lee, 2002, p. 223).
A bilateral kinship system, on the other hand, can use either the mother or father’s lineage as a way to determine heritage. An example of this type of lineage system is seen with the Jewish “family circle” societies of New York City. These types of lineages have been created to restore and preserve traditional values of the Jewish community. Membership in this type of heritage group depends on descent from a specific “ancestral pair.” In order to prove membership to a specific “family circle” a person can trace relations through their matrilineal or patrilineal heritage. (Searles and Lee, 2002, p. 223).
Determining whether to trace heritage through matrilineal or patrilineal lines depends greatly on the culture of the person doing the search. Western European cultures, including those that immigrated to North America, most often trace their heritage through the patrilineal, or the father’s, heritage line. (Haviland, 2002, p.491). Matrilineal, or tracing heritage through the mother’s heritage line, is not as common, but it is seen. (p. 490). An example of such a system is the Hopi Indians. In matrilineal group, women are seen to hold the wealth of the family and are often tied to familial lands.
References
Haviland, William A. (2002). Cultural Anthropology. (10th ed.). Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers.
Lee, Valerie L., and Searles, Richard T. (2002). Study Guide for the Telecourse Faces of Culture. (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
