List of matrilineal or matrilocal societies
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The following list includes societies that have been identified as matrilineal or matrilocal in ethnographic literature.
"Matrilineal" means kinship is passed down through the maternal line.[1]
The Akans of Ghana, West Africa, are Matrilineal. Akans are the largest ethnic group in Ghana. They are made of the Akyems or Akims, Asantes, Fantis, Akuapims, Kwahus, Denkyiras, Bonos, Akwamus, Krachis, etc.
The Serer people of Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania are bilineal, but matrilineality (tiim, in Serer) is very important in their culture, and is well preserved.[2][3] There are a multitude of Serer maternal clans with their various history and origins.
"Matrilocal" means new families are established in proximity to the brides' extended family of origin, not that of the groom.
Note: separate in the marriage column refers to the practice of husbands and wives living in separate locations, often informally called walking marriages. See the articles for the specific cultures that practice this for further description.
Group name | Continent | Country / Region | Marriage | Lineage | Reference | (c. year) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Akan | Africa | Ghana | Both | Matrilineal | Meyer Fortes[4] | 1950 |
Alor | Asia | Indonesia | Cora du Bois | 1944 | ||
Nso | Africa | Cameroon | Patrilocal | Only Kom Matrilineal | Phyllis Kaberry | 1952 |
Batek | Asia | Malaysia | Patrilocal | Kirk Michael Endicott | 1974 | |
Bijagós | Africa | Guinea-Bissau | Matrilineal | Luigi Scantarburlo | 1978 | |
Billava | Asia | India | Patrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Bontoc | Asia | Philippines | Albert Jenks Albert Bacdayan | 1905 1974 | ||
Boyowan | Australasia | Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea | Patrilocal | Matrilineal | Bronisław Malinowski | 1916 |
Bribri | North America | Costa Rica | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | William More Gabb | 1875 |
Bunt | Asia | India | Patrilocal | Matrilineal | E Kathleen Gough | 1954 |
Cherokee | North America | United States | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Chickasaw | North America | United States | Matrilineal | |||
Choctaw | North America | United States | Matrilineal | |||
Danes | Europe | Læsø | Matrilocal | Matrilineal[5] | Bjarne Stoklund[6] | 1700-1900 |
Chambri | Australasia | Papua New Guinea | Margaret Mead | 1935 | ||
Nairs | Asia | India | Both | Matrilineal | ||
Fore | Australasia | Papua New Guinea | Shirley Glasse (Lindenbaum) | 1963 | ||
Garo | Asia | India, Bangladesh | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Gitxsan | North America | Canada | Matrilineal | |||
Greek | Europe | various islands | Matrilocal | John Hawkins | to the end of the 18th century AD[7] | |
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) | North America | United States, Canada | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | Lewis Henry Morgan | 1901 |
Hopi | North America | United States | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | Barbara Freire-Marreco | 1914 |
Huaorani[citation needed] | South America | Ecuador | John Man[citation needed] | 1982[citation needed] | ||
Iban | Asia | Borneo | Both | Neither | Edwin H Gomes | 1911 |
Imazighen | Africa | North Sahara | George Peter Murdock | 1959 | ||
Jaintia | Asia | India | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Jívaro | South America | West Amazon | Rafael Karsten | 1926 | ||
Jews in the Kibbutzim | Israel | [8] | Matrilineal | Judith Buber Agassi[9] | 1989 | |
Karen | Asia | Burma | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | Harry Ignatius Marshall[10] | 1922 |
Kerinci | Asia | Indonesia | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | C.W. Watson[11] | 1992 |
Khasi | Asia | India | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | P. R. T. Gurdon[12] | 1914 |
Kuna people | South America | Panama, Colombia | Matrilocal | |||
!Kung San | Africa | Southern Africa | Marjorie Shostak | 1976 | ||
Lenape (Delaware) | North America | United States of America | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Marshallese | Oceania | Marshall Islands | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Maliku | Asia | India | Separate | Matrilineal | Ellen Kattner | 1996 |
Minangkabau | Asia | Indonesia | Separate | Matrilineal | Pieter Johannes Veth | 1882 |
Mohican | North America | United States | Matrilineal | |||
Mosuo/Nakhi | Asia | China | Separate | Matrilineal | Joseph Francis Charles Rock | 1924 |
Nair | Asia | India | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | E Kathleen Gough | 1954 |
Navajo | North America | United States | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Ngazidja/Grande Comore | Africa | Comoros | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | Paul Guy[13] Martine Gestin, Nicole-Claude Mathieu[14] | 1942 |
Nubians | Africa | Sudan | Ernest Godard | 1867 | ||
Ovambo | Africa | Namibia | Matrilineal | Maija Hiltunen (Tuupainen)[15] | 1970 | |
Seminole | North America | United States | Matrilineal | |||
Serer | Africa | Senegal, Gambia and Mauritania | Patrilocal | Both | Henry Gravrand[16] Charles Becker[17] | 1990 1993 |
Siraya | Austronesia | Taiwan | Duolocal, uxorilocal | Matrilineal | Shepherd & Candidius | 1995 |
Tai people | Asia | Matrilocal | ||||
Tlingit | North America | United States, and Canada | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | Aurel Krause | 1885 |
Tiwi | Australasia | Australia | Matrilineal | |||
Tsimshian | North America | United States, and Canada | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Vanatinai | Australasia | Papua New Guinea | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | Maria Lepowsky | 1981 |
Wemale | Asia | Indonesia | Adolf E Jensen | 1939 | ||
Basques | Europe | Spain and France | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Chams | Asia | Vietnam, Cambodia | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | [18] | |
Rhade (Ê Đê) | Asia | Vietnam, Cambodia | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | [19] | |
Amis | Asia | Taiwan | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Han Taiwanese (antiquated, mostly rural) | Asia | Taiwan | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | [20] | |
Western Apache | North America | United States | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Akimel Oʼodham (Pima) | North America | United States | Matrilocal | |||
Muscogee | North America | United States | Matrilineal | |||
Tsenacommacah (Powhatan confederacy) | North America | United States | Matrilineal | |||
Wampanoag | North America | United States | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | ||
Nipmuc | North America | United States | Matrilineal | |||
Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico | North America | United States | Matrilineal | Paul Kirchhoff[21] | 1954 | |
Keres people | North America | United States | Matrilineal | Paul Kirchhoff[21] | 1954 | |
Wayuu | South America | Colombia, Venezuela | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | Nina S. de Friedemann [22] | 1982 |
Zuni | North America | United States | Matrilineal | Paul Kirchhoff[21] | 1954 |
References
- ^ Madaus, Sarah. "6 Matriarchal Societies That Have Been Thriving With Women at the Helm for Centuries". Town and Country. Hearst Digital Media. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
- ^ Becker, Charles: "Vestiges historiques, trémoins matériels du passé clans les pays sereer", Dakar (1993), CNRS - ORS TO M.
- ^ Gastellu, Jean-Marc, "Petit traité de matrilinarité. L'accumulation dans deux sociétés rurales d'Afrique de l'Ouest", Cahiers ORSTOM, série Sciences Humaines 4 (1985) [in] Gastellu, Jean-Marc, "Matrilineages, Economic Groups and Differentiation in West Africa: A Note", O.R.S.T.O.M. Fonds Documentaire (1988), pp 1, 2-4 (pp 272-4), 7 (p 277)
- ^ Val'Dman, A. V.; Kozlovskaia, M. M. (1975). "1950 Ashanti Kinship. In A.R. Radcliffe Brown. African systems of Kinship and Marriage. London: Oxford University Press". Zhurnal Nevropatologii i Psikhiatrii Imeni S.S. Korsakova. 75 (11): 1710–7. PMID 1950.
- ^ only in informal everyday language.
- ^ Gårdene gik i arv på spindesiden. Kvinderne drev landbruget, medens mændene mest tog sig af strandinger og fiskeri og hjalp med pløjning og tærskning.
The farms were inherited in the distaff side. The women drive agriculture, while men most took care of shipwrecks and fishing and helped with plowing and threshing.- Stoklund, Bjarne: "Arbejde og kønsroller på Læsø o. 1200-1900" ISBN 87-88683-08-7
- "Kvindefællesskaber" (Anna Birte Ravn og Marianne Rostgård). ISBN 87-982062-1-4
- ^ Myers, Peter (November 23, 2001). "Aryan Invasions – Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Colin Renfew, Marija Gimbutas and Martin Bernal on the Indo-European invasions and the earlier Goddess cultures". Neither Aryan Nor Jew. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
Traces of matrilineal practices have been found in recent centuries in peripheral areas of the west and north of Europe, and in the Aegean islands. In a number of islands, including Lesbos, Lemnos, Naxos, and Kos, matrilineal succession to real property was the rule at the end of the 18th century A.D. The facts were reported by an English traveller, John Hawkins, who wrote: "In the large number of the islands, the eldest daughter takes as her inheritance a portion of the family house, together with its furniture, and one third of the share of the maternal property, which in reality in most of these cases constitutes the chief means of subsistence; the other daughters, when they marry off in succession, are likewise entitled to (a portion of) the family house and the same share of whatever property remains. These observations were applicable to the islands of Mytilin (Lesbos), Lemnos, Scopelo, Skyros, Syra, Zea Ipsera, Myconi, Paros, Naxia, Siphno, Santorini and Cos, where I have either collected my information in person or had obtained it through others."
- ^ see Jewish views of marriage
- ^ Agassi, Judith Buber, (1989) "Theories of Gender Equality: Lessons from the Israeli Kibbutz", Gender and Society, 3/2, 160-186.
- ^ Marshall, Harry Ignatius (1922). "The Karen People of Burma: A Study in Anthropology and Ethnology." Ohio State University Bulletin 26(13). ISBN 974-8496-86-4
- ^ C. W. Watson Kinship, Property and Inheritance in Kerinci, Central Sumatra 1992 ISBN 0 904938 19 0
- ^ The Khasis by P. R. T. Gurdon
- ^ Guy, Paul (October–December 1942). "Sur une coutume locale de droit musulman de l'Archipel des Comores". Revue algérienne, tunisienne et marocaine de législation et de jurisprudence (in French). pp. 78–79.
- Laurent Sermet. "Loi et coutume en Grande-Comore". Anthropologie en Ligne (in French).
- ^ Gestin, Martine; Mathieu, Nicole-Claude [in French] (2007). Une maison sans fille est une maison morte (in French). Maison des sciences de l'homme.
- "Une maison sans fille est une maison morte". France Culture.
- ^ Marriage in a matrilineal African tribe: A social anthropological study of marriage in the Ondonga tribe in Ovamboland.
- ^ (in French) Gravrand, Henry, "La civilisation sereer, vol. II: Pangool", Nouvelles éditions africaines, Dakar (1990), pp 193-4, ISBN 2-7236-1055-1
- ^ (in French) Becker, Charles, "Vestiges historiques, témoins matériels du passé dans les pays sereer", Dakar (1993), CNRS - ORS TO M Excerpt (Retrieved: 23 July 2012)
- ^ Phuong, Tran Ky; Lockhart, Bruce (2011-01-01). The Cham of Vietnam: History, Society and Art. NUS Press. ISBN 978-9971-69-459-3.
- ^ Lebar, Frank M.; Gerald C. Hickey; John K. Musgrave (1964). Ethnic Groups of Mainland Southeast Asia. New Haven, Connecticut: Human Relations Area Files Press. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-25414.
- ^ Kleinman, A.; Lin, T. Y. (29 June 2013). Normal and Abnormal Behavior in Chinese Culture. ISBN 9789401749862.
- ^ a b c Paul Kirchhoff, "Gatherers and Farmers in the Greater Southwest: A Problem in Classification", American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 56, No. 4, Southwest Issue (August 1954), pp. 529–550
- ^ Friedemann, Nina S. de, Jaime Arocha Rodríguez (1982) “Herederos del jaguar y la anaconda”; pp 289-338 “8. Guajiros: amos de la arrogancia y del cacto”; Carlos Valencia Editores Bogotá ISBN 84-8277-088-8|quote= (…) "los hombres en el acto de procreación contribuyen con su sangre –asháa–, a tiempo que las mujeres participan con la carne –eiruku–. Los hijos, tanto los varones como las mujeres, heredan la sangre del padre, pero solamente las madres pueden transmitirles la carne y el “apellido”. Así, un guajiro, sea sea hombre o mujer, tiene más relaciones económicas y sociales con la familia materna, sus parientes de carne, que con la paterna, sus parientes de sangre"
"The men in the act of procreation contribute with their blood -asháa-, while the women participate with their flesh -eiruku-. The children, both males and females, inherit the blood of the father, but only the mothers can transmit the flesh and the "surname". Thus, a guajiro, whether male or female, has more economic and social relations with the maternal family, his or her relatives of flesh, than with the paternal family, his or her relatives of blood."