Patrilineal descent is a kinship system in which an individual's family membership, lineage identity, and inheritance are traced exclusively through the father's line, so that children belong to their father's descent group while daughters, upon marriage, typically shift their formal affiliation to their husband's lineage. Rights, property, family names, and titles pass from father to son, and historically this principle underlay European practices such as agnatic primogeniture and the Salic law tradition, which excluded women from inheriting thrones and estates in parts of medieval and early modern Europe. Patrilineal systems account for roughly 44 percent of societies catalogued in Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas, especially prominent in East Asia, the Middle East, much of Europe, and parts of Africa and South Asia.
Facts
Descent RuleSourced to the subject's own accountLineage membership, inheritance, and group affiliation pass exclusively through the male line, from father to children (especially sons); daughters typically transfer formal lineage affiliation to their husband's family upon marriage. 1 Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountHistorically and currently widespread, especially prominent in East Asia (notably China), the Middle East, much of Europe, and parts of South Asia and Africa; roughly 44 percent of societies in Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Found in patrilineal societies, with the mirrored generation-collapsing logic applied to the mother's, non-patrilineal, side.
Frequently co-occurs with patrilineal descent in the complex, stratified societies where the system is documented.
Shaped By
Lévi-Strauss's The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949) analyzed descent and alliance rules, including patrilineal systems, as structural permutations of a limited set of underlying relations.
Studied By
The Nuer are patrilineal; his Nuer trilogy, beginning with The Nuer (1940) and Kinship and Marriage Among the Nuer (1951), is the foundational study of Nuer patrilineal segmentary lineage organization.
Sources
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