Descent
In all societies, there are social groups
whose membership is based on descent; members share a common ancestor or living
relative. Descent groups help to define the pool of potential mates, the group
of people who are obligated to help in economic and political issues, and may
even dictate which religion is followed, particularly in unilineal descent
groups.
The term descent denotes the
relationship that bonds the child to its mother or father, through which the
elements that constitute the main characteristics of their status are
transmitted. These include name, surname, heritage, and so on. Descent rules
determine mainly membership to the parents’ kinship groups; in other words,
descent is more of a social convention than a biological relationship. Consanguinity
may exist, but it is in no way a necessary requirement. For instance, we
consider adopted individuals (fictitious or ritual kinship) to have the same
descent as the members of the group that adopted them. Just as it applies to
individuals, descent can pertain to groups when group members biologically
descend from a common ancestor or when they declare this to be the case, as
slaves did by assuming membership of their owner’s kinship group.
Descent group Any kin-ordered
social group with a membership in the direct line of descent from a real
(historical) or fictional common ancestor.
Membership in a
descent group provides individuals with a wider social network of relatives
without whom it is difficult or even impossible to effectively deal with the multiple
challenges of survival humans face, including securing vitally important
natural resources for food, fuel, shelter, and other necessities. Although many
important functions of the descent group are taken over by other institutions when
a society becomes politically organized as a state, elements of such
kin-ordered groups may continue. We see this with many traditional indigenous
societies that have become part of larger state societies yet endure as distinctive
kin-ordered communities.
Morgan and especially Pitt-Rivers and
Radcliffe-Brown formulated a series of theories that reproduction by way of
descent is the main principle of kinship. These theories are known as descent
theories. A different view to these older theories is aired by Levi-Strauss’s
alliance theory, which links the exchange of women and the interdiction of
incest as the organizational principles of kinship.
Descent systems determine the parents who transmit the main
characteristics of individuals’ status. Parents also determine our membership
in kinship groups: our mothers, fathers, or both. We can define descent
as bilateral or cognatic when the characteristics of our status are transmitted
through both parents and we belong to both parents’ kinship groups. Most
Western societies fall into this category, with children usually bearing their
father’s surname. We define descent as unilineal or unilateral when the
elements of an individual’s status are transmitted through only one parent and
the individual belongs to only one parent’s kinship group.
When an individual’s
status elements are transmitted through men, particularly the father, the descent is patrilineal or agnatic. In these cases, individuals belong to the groups
constituted by their fathers’ kin without overlooking their consanguinity links
with their mothers. The Nuer in Sudan and the ancient Romans have
kinship groups of typical patrilineal or agnatic descent.
Correspondingly, when the elements of
status have been transmitted by women, by mothers in particular, the descent is
called matrilineal or uterine. This descent was common among the Iroquois
Native Americans, and it still happens in the Hopi tribe. In many matrilineal
or uterine descent societies, the mother’s brother has the primary role in the
kinship group, corresponding to the father’s role in patrilineal or
agnatic descent cases. In the Trobriands in Melanesia, the son belongs to his
mother’s kinship group in which her brother is also included; following the
son’s marriage, the son and his wife live with the said brother.
Some societies have an even more
complicated descent system, combining matrilineal and patrilineal descent but
with only one of them being commonly accepted. This system is termed double
descent or bilineal descent, not to be confused with bilateral or cognatic
descent, where descent is equally determined by both parents’ sides. In
the Ashanti in Ghana, children inherit their fathers’ “spirit” as a
characteristic of their status, but they belong to their mothers’ kinship
groups, with whom they cohabit. A man and a woman who are distant patrilateral
relatives are allowed to marry when it becomes impossible for them to name
their common patrilateral ancestor, usually after four or five generations.
Marriage is, however, strictly forbidden for all matrilateral relatives
belonging to the mother’s wider kinship group. Conversely, in the Yako in
Nigeria, children belong to and live with the patrilateral kinship group. This
patrilateral group is strictly exogamic; their matrilateral group is much less so.
Here we have two unilineal descents juxtaposed.
Because descent systems determine the kinship group to which individuals
belong and with whom they usually cohabit, descent also appears related to the
location of residence of both individuals and groups. When descent and locality
appear parallel, that is, when patrilineal descent goes together with
patrilocality or virilocality (residence with patrilateral relatives) and
matrilineal descent goes together with matrilocality or uxorilocality
(residence with matrilateral relatives), the descent system is described as
harmonic. For instance, the patrilineal Nuer are patrilocal and the matrilineal
Hopi, matrilocal.
There are cases, however,
where descent and locality are opposed, as system we then describe as
disharmonie More specifically, a disharmonic system can combine either
patrilineal descent with matrilocality or matrilineal descent with
patrilocality. In Congo, for example, the husband lives in the same village as
his father and sons (patrilocal residence) but belongs and inherits goods from
his matrilineal descent group (matrilineal descent).
Lineage
A family is bilateral. In contrast to this, a lineage is
a unilateral descent group. It is made up of consanguine kins that claim their
descent from a common ancestor or ancestress, through known link. A lineage
generally includes ancestors of five or six generations in a sequence. Lineages
may be of two types- Patrilineage and matrilineage. In the former, links are
traced exclusively through the male line and in the latter, links are
maintained through female line only. If the descent is patrilineal ,the child
of a legal marriage belongs to his father’s lineage. His rank as a noble or a
commoner will be determined by the nature of the respective lineage. It may
entitle him to become a King or a Chief or a priest. In ordinary cases, one
must have a claim on the productive resources of the lineage. In a matrilineal
society, every child belongs to the lineage of his or her mother although the
authority goes with mother’s eldest brother.
The lineage members may or may not share a common
residence. The smallest lineage consists of a man and his children. Joint
family is also a lineage where members up to three or four generations are
available together. Actually members of a lineage form a corporate group who perform
the same ritual acts but possess autonomy in everyday affairs. A lineage is
always a strict exogamous unit and the ancestor of a lineage is never a
mythological or legendary figure.
CLAN
A clan is a
unilineal kinship group larger than a lineage. Here the members are supposed to
be descendent from a common ancestor but the genealogical links are not
specified. i.e. the members cannot demonstrate their actual lineal relationship
through a genealogical table. In such a condition, descent is traced to a mythical
ancestor who may be a human, a plant, an animal, or even an inanimate
object.
The term clan, sib and gents indicate the same unilinear
kinship around. Clans are exogamous in nature i.e. marriage partners
essentially come from two different clans. Membership in a clan is hereditary.
Members of a clan usually remain friendly to each other and help one another
following a social need. But sometimes hostile relation between two clans is
found.
The particular animal or plant, which remains associated
with a clan as group identification, is called totem. According to R.H. Lowie,
‘a totem is generally an animal more rarely a plant, still more rarely a cosmic
body or force like sun or wind, which gives its name to a clan and maybe
otherwise associated with it.’ A totem is therefore especially significant fore
the clan. Rivers defined a clan as ‘an exogamous division of a tribe, the
members of which are tied together by belief in common descent, common
possession of a totem or habitation of a common territory.’ Clan is found in almost
all primitive communities of the world, though not as a universal feature.
For example, sandals of India has twelve clans, lodha
tribe has nine clans. Andamanese and Kadar show no evidence of clan. Absence of
clan has also been noted from tribes of America. Members of a clan regard their
respective totem as founding ancestor. They do not always believe that they
have directly descended from the totem, it is said that the particular totem
has helped or promoted or given some services to their ancestors. Therefore,
the members respect totem, they never touch, kill, eat, harm or destroy the
totem of reference. For example, a clan among the santal is named as hansda.
The members of this clan respect duck (local name: Hans) and do not eat the
flesh of duck because they believe themselves to be originated from duck.
Similarly a clan among lodhas is nayek whose totem is sal-fish. Killing or
eating of sal-fish is prohibited to this clan. More examples can be cited in
this respect. One of the clan among oraon is named lakra which means tiger. The
clan members never hunt tigers for showing regard to this ancestral animal.
Clans can be categorized into several types on this basis of its nature of
origination.
Patrilineal clan :When a clan is patrilineal in nature, it
is called patrilineal clan i.e. all the members are considered to be descendant
from a common fore-father through male line. Every child inherits father’s clan
name though daughters leave it after marriage by adopting respective clan name
of their husbands. Santal, Munda, Lodha, Oraon, Bhil, etc. tribes of India
exhibit this type of clan.
Matrilineal clan :It is the type of clan where the descent is reckoned from a single ancestress
through females. Every child, trrespective of sex acquires their maternal clan
–name by birth but sons adopt clan- names of their respective wives after
marriage. Garo, Khasi and Nayer tribes of India show this type of clan.
Ancestral clan: Sometimes members of a clan believe
that they have originated from a definite pair of males and females. This
type of clan is called an ancestral clan. It is found among the Khasi people of
Meghalaya
( Totemic clan:Instead of human ancestor when the
members of a clan relate themselves with a particular totem, the clan is
designated as a totemic clan. Such clans are frequently found among the
primitive communities like Santal, Oraon, Lodha, Kol, Bhil, Gond, Toda, etc.
( Territorial clan :Sometimes members of a clan identify
themselves with a particular territory from where they had been possibly
originated. Among the Bison Murias of M.P. clans are named after the villages.
Among the Nagas of Assam, Khel is a territorial group, though not a clan.
The term ‘sib’ is
often considered as synonym of the term ‘clan’ because it is also a unilateral
exogamous group where members believe in a common descent but they may not able
to show the link through a genealogical table. Further, this involuntary
association is dependent on birth and may be changed through adoption. Sibs do
not occur in the lowest stages of culture represented by hunting and the
pastoral tribes like Andamanese, saemang, Hottentot, Bushman, Eskimo, etc.
Existence of sib has been recorded from the Lhota Nagas
of Assam, Bhuiya of Orissa, Kukis of Manipur, aruntas of Australia , Bantus and
masais of Africa, etc. the other synonym of clan, ‘Gens’ corresponds to a
patrilineal clan because here kinship is traced absolutely through male line.
Clan is also equivalent to the Bengal term ‘gotra’ . Members using the same
gotra- name do not marry each other. Among the Hindus of India different gotra-
names relate with rthe names of some ancient sages(Kshyap, Sandilya, gautam,
Varatdwaj, etc. ) which means people having same gotra- name have been descended
from the same fore-father. Gotra is, therefore patrilineal and it does not
possess any totem.
Functions of clan
1. A clan provides
a bond of solidarity among its members.
2. The men and women of a clan look at the relation as
like the relation between brothers and sisters because they are the descendants
of a same progenitor.
3. A clan may punish its members when they deviate any
social norm.
4. Clan operates as a Government.. It has the
power to judge on the disputes to maintain peace, but different sort of sanction
come through it.
5. A clan is found to control property.
6. Members of a
clan are united to co-operate among themselves in various religious and
ceremonial occasions.
Phratry
An interrelation
between two or more clans makes a phratry. It is, therefore, a larger unilineal
descent group than a clan. As in a clan, members of a phratry are not able to
demonstrate their genealogical links with the common ancestor, although they
strongly believe in such an ancestor.
The term phratry has been derived from the Greek word
‘phrater’ meaning brother. It is regarded that a few clans historically merged
together for some reason or other and developed such an intimate relationship
between them that gradually they achieved a common identity where their
individual status was forgotten. Phratry is found among the tribes like Aimol
Kukis of Manipur, Hopi Indians, Crow Indians, Aztec Indians of America, etc. A
phratry may or may not be exogamous. For example, thirteen clans among Crow
Indians are found to be grouped into six nameless phratries, four of which are
not strict in the rules for the marriage. Among the Hopi Indians, on the other
hand, nine anonymous phratries (each having two to six clans) are found which
are exogamous.
Moiety
It is the largest unilateral social group, which results
from splitting a society into two halves on the basis of descent. The
word moiety came from the French word meaning ‘half’. Like clan and phratry,
the members of each moiety though believe in a common ancestor but can not
specify the exact link. Moieties may be exogamous or endogamous. Some of them
are agamous too i.e., they do not regulate the factor of the marriage. The
Aimol Kukis of Manipur are divided into two moieties without specific names.
Each moiety is further divided into two phratries and each phratry has two clan
or sib. Moieties are exogamous and one of them is considered as superior than
the other. The superior moiety reserves all the posts of village organization
including that of the priest. Both the moieties perform specific religious
rites and ceremonies of the tribe, separately. Each has some special performances
too. But ceremonies involving higher social-status are performed only by the
members of superior moiety.
Rule of Descent
: ‘Descent’ refers to the social
recognition of the biological relationship that exists between the individuals.
The ‘rule of descent’ refers to a set of principles by which an individual
traces his descent.In almost all societies kinship connections are very
siginificant.An individual always possesses certain obligations towards his
kinsmen and he also expects the same from his kinsmen.Succession and
inheritance is related to this rule of descent. There are four important rules
of decent are follows;
1. Unilineal descent
Most
cultures severely limit the range of people through whom descent is traced by
using a unilineal descent principle. This traces descent only
through a single line of ancestors, male or female. Both males and
females are members of a unilineal family, but descent links are only recognized
through relatives of one gender. The two basic forms of unilineal descent
are referred to as patrilineal and matrilineal .
When descent
is traced solely through the male line, it is called patrilineal descent. Adescent system that
highlights the importance of men in tracing descent, determining marital residence
with or near the groom’s family, and providing for inheritance of property
through the male line. A
man’s sons and daughters all belong to the same descent group by dint of birth,
but only the sons continue the affiliation. Succession and inheritance
pass through the male line.. With patrilineal descent,
both males and females belong to their father's kin group but not their
mother's. However, only males pass on their family identity to their
children. A woman's children are members of her husband's patrilineal
line. The red people in the diagram below are related to each
other patrilineally.
All
persons inherit membership in a patriline through their father, but only sons
can transmit it to their offspring. Notice that when this principle is
operating, it is always quite clear who is and who is not a member of the
group, and this clarity persists over the generations. males and females are
members of patrilineal descent groups; however, societies vary in terms of the
extent to which women are considered full members of their natal patrilines and what happens to their membership when they marry. In some
societies, such as the Tallensi of Ghana, women hold full membership in their
natal patrilines throughout life and retain specific rights and duties
vis-Ã -vis their natal patrilineal group. In other cases, such as that
traditionally found in southern China, a woman at marriage is more fully
identified with her husband’s patriline and retains very few rights in her
natal group.
In
some patrilineal societies, clearly bounded descent groups may own property in
common and transmit it through the generations, worship common deities or
common ancestors, function as political units, take legal responsibility for
the actions of all members, and engender in members a basic and primary
identity with the descent group. From the point of view of the individual, the
descent group (and not just “the family” in some unspecified sense) may
determine how one survives economically as well as when one marries, whom one
marries, and, in general, how one lives and what one does throughout his or her
entire life. But the specific power a patrilineal descent group has or the way
it functions, must be considered for each society separately.
By
adopting a mode of descent, whether patrilineal, matrilineal, or cognatic, a
society has a handy means of forming descent groups, which in turn become
fundamental to its social organization
Many
anthropologists have argued that particular modes of descent probably arose out
of different patterns of postmarital residence. If, for example, residence is
patrilocal, then females born into a group move out at marriage, whereas the
males stay put. These males would then be patrilineally related to one another.
It thus makes sense that this group would adopt patrilineal descent, since each
residential area would already consist of a core of patrilineally related
males. As control over resources becomes an important consideration, these
males could transmit rights over resources through patrilineal lines.
Some
anthropologists have further suggested that different patterns of postmarital
residence are, or at least were initially, related to different patterns in the
sexual division of labor. Thus, if males make the major contributions to
subsistence and if their subsistence activities require close cooperation (as
in group hunting or plow agriculture), then it would be convenient to keep
closely related males together in a local group. The partrilocal or virilocoal
form of residence will be thus generally accepted.
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PATRILINEAL DESCENT AND ORGANIZATION: A CHINESE EXAMPLE
The case among the Han, the dominant ethnic majority in modern China.
Until the communist takeover in 1949, most of rural Chinese society was
strongly patrilineal, with a few exceptions such as the Mosuo of Yunnan
Province in the southernmost part of the country. Since then, considerable
changes have occurred, although vestiges of the old system persist in different
regions. Traditionally, the basic unit for economic cooperation among the Han
Chinese was the large extended family, typically including aged parents and
their sons, wives, and sons’ children.
In places where
tradition persists, residence is patrilocal, with Han Chinese children growing
up in a household dominated by their father and his male relatives. The father is
a source of discipline from whom a child would maintain a respectful social distance.
Often, the father’s brother and his sons are members of the same household.
Thus one’s paternal uncle is like a second father and deserving of obedience
and respect, while his sons are like one’s brothers. Accordingly, the Han
Chinese kinship term applied to one’s own father is extended to the father’s
brother, and the term for a brother is extended to the father’s brother’s sons.
When families become too large and unwieldy, as frequently happens, one or more
sons would move elsewhere to establish separate households. When a son does so,
however, the tie to the household in which he is born remains strong.
While family
membership was important for each individual, the primary social unit is the
lineage, or the tsu, as it is known among the Han in
China. Each tsu consists of men who trace their
ancestry back through the male line to a common ancestor, usually within about
five generations. Although a woman belongs to her father’s tsu, for
all practical purposes she is absorbed by the tsu
of
her husband, with whom she lives after marriage. Nonetheless, members of her natal
(birth) tsu retain some interest in her after
her departure. Her mother, for example, would assist her in the birth of her
children, and her brother or some other male relative would look after her
interests, perhaps even intervening if her husband or other members of his
family treat her badly. The function of the tsu
is
to help its members economically and gather on ceremonial occasions such as weddings
and funerals or make offerings to the ancestors.
Recently
deceased ancestors, up to about three generations back, are given offerings of
food and paper money on the anniversaries of their births and deaths, while
more distant ancestors are collectively worshiped five times a year. Each tsu maintains
its own shrine for storage of ancestral tablets on which the names of all
members are recorded. In addition to its economic and ritual functions, the tsu also
functions as a legal body, passing judgment on misbehaving members. Just as
families periodically split up into new ones, so would the larger descent
groups periodically splinter along the lines of their main family branches.
Causes for splits include disputes among brothers over management of
landholdings and suspicion of unfair division of profits. When such fissions
occur, a representative of the new tsu would return
periodically to the ancestral temple in order to pay respect to the ancestors
and record recent births and deaths in the official genealogy. Ultimately,
though the lineage tie to the old tsu
still
would be recognized, a copy of the old genealogy would be made and brought home
to the younger tsu, and then only its births and
deaths would be recorded. In this way, a whole hierarchy
of descent groups develops over many centuries, with all persons having the same surname
considering themselves to be members of a great patrilineal clan.
With this went
surname exogamy, meaning that none of the many bearing the same clan name could
marry anyone else within that large group. This marriage rule is still widely
practiced today even though clan members no longer carry on ceremonial
activities together. Traditionally, the patrilineal system permeated all of
rural Han Chinese social relations. Children owed obedience and respect to
their fathers and older patrilineal relatives in life and had to marry whomever
their parents chose for them. It was the duty of sons to care for their parents
when they became old and helpless, and even after death sons had ceremonial
obligations to them. Inheritance passed from fathers to sons, with an extra
share going to the eldest, since he ordinarily made the greatest contribution
to the household and had the greatest responsibility toward his parents after their
death. Han Chinese women, by contrast, had no claims on their families’
heritable property. Once married, a woman was in effect cast off by her own
patrilineal kin (even though they might continue to take an interest in her) to produce children for her husband’s family and tsu. Some
of the obligations and attitudes of the traditional system persist today,
minimally the obedience and respect owed by children to their fathers and older
patrilineal relatives. As the preceding suggests, a patrilineal society is very
much a man’s world. No matter how valued women may be, they inevitably find
themselves in a difficult position. Far from resigning themselves to a
subordinate position, however, they actively manipulate the system to their own
advantage as best they can.
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