Duolocal Residence

Duolocal residence, also called natolocal residence, is a postmarital residence pattern in which a married couple lives apart from each other, with each partner remaining in their own natal household and kinship group rather than either spouse relocating to join the other's. Anthropologists have documented at least two variants: patrilineal duolocality, in which a clan's patriarchs marry patrilocally while other family members continue to live duolocally with their own natal kin, as recorded by anthropologist Harumi Befu among the Nagakiri of Japan; and matrilineal duolocality, in which residence and descent both follow the maternal line, as among the Mosuo of southwest China, whose large multigenerational matrilineal households allow men to live with their own mothers and sisters while contributing only minimal domestic or agricultural labor. Under either variant, neither spouse changes kinship-group membership upon marriage, since both remain embedded in their own natal descent group throughout the marriage.