Matrilocal residence, also called uxorilocal residence, is the postmarital residence pattern in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents, so that children of the marriage are raised within the mother's extended matrilineal clan. It is found most often in horticultural societies and is documented among the Minangkabau of Sumatra, the Mosuo of China, the Khasi of India, and various Puebloan peoples of North America. It contrasts with patrilocal residence, with or near the husband's family, and avunculocal residence, with the husband's mother's brother, both already on this atlas, and research finds it correlated with an increased female contribution to subsistence, though a rise in non-sororal polygyny driven by the same economic shift can in turn erode matrilocality.
Facts
Descent RuleSourced to the subject's own accountA married couple resides with or near the wife's parents, and children are raised by the mother's extended matrilineal clan; the pattern is most often found alongside matrilineal descent and horticultural subsistence economies. 1 Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountDocumented among the Minangkabau of Sumatra, the Mosuo of China, the Khasi of India, and various Puebloan peoples of North America; found most often in horticultural societies. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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.
The direct structural counterpart of patrilocal residence, substituting the wife's kin group for the husband's.
Associated With
An increase in female subsistence contribution tends to produce both matrilocal residence and matrilineal descent together, though not by logical necessity.
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