Kinship and descent

Kinship and descent is one of the major concepts of. Cultures worldwide possess a wide range of systems of tracking and descent. Anthropologists break these down into simple concepts which are common among many different cultures.

Descent groups
A descent group is a whose members claim common ancestry. A society (such as the ) is one in which the descent of an individual is reckoned either from the mother's or the father's descent group. With individuals belong to their mother's descent group (Not however through the mother directly. Usually descent is counted through the mothers brother, along with inheritance). With, individuals belong to their father's descent group.

In a society which reckons descent bilineally, or bilaterally (such as the ), descent from both father and mother is equally important.

Some societies reckon descent patrilineally for some purposes, and matrilineally for others. For instance, certain property and titles may be inherited through the male line, and others through the female line. This arrangement is sometimes called double descent.

Societies can also consider descent to be (such as ) where offspring determine their lineage through the  or the.

Lineages, clans, phratries and moieties
A lineage is a descent group that can demonstrate their common descent from an. Unilineal lineages can be matrilineal or patrilineal, depending on whether they are traced through mothers or fathers, respectively. Whether matrilineal or patrilineal descent is considered most significant differs from culture to culture.

A is a descent group that claims common descent from an apical ancestor (but often cannot demonstrate it, or "stipulated descent"). If a clan's apical ancestor is nonhuman, it is called a. Examples of clans are, , , , , and.

A is a descent group containing at least two clans which have a supposed common ancestor.

If a society is divided into exactly two descent groups, each is called a, after the word for half.

The nuclear family
The Western model of a consists of a couple and its children. The nuclear family is ego-centered and impermanent, while descent groups are permanent (lasting beyond the lifespans of individual constituents) and reckoned according to a single ancestor.

Kinship calculation is any systemic method for reckoning kin relations. Kinship terminologies are native taxonomies, not developed by anthropologists.

Beanpole family is a term used to describe expansions of the number of living s within a family unit, but each generation has relatively few members in it.

Legal ramifications
Kinship and descent have a number of ramifications, which vary widely between legal and social structures.

Most human groups share against ; relatives are forbidden from  but the rules tend to vary widely once one moves beyond the. At, the prohibitions are typically phrased in terms of "degrees of ."

More importantly, kinship and descent enters the legal system by virtue of, the laws that at common law determine who inherits the estates of the dead in the absence of a. In countries, the doctrine of  plays a similar role, and makes the lineal descendants of the dead person forced s.  Rules of kinship and descent have important public aspects, especially under, where they determine the , the  and the.

Kinship systems
The six major kinship systems identified by in his  work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family are:
 * (an expansion of Bifurcate Merging)
 * (also referred to as Lineal kinship)
 * (also referred to as the Generational system)
 * (also known as Bifurcate merging)
 * (also an expansion of Bifurcate Merging)
 * (also referred to as the Descriptive system)