Rule Of Descent

Associated Documents (5)

Main AuthorPublished YearTitle
Brown, Judith K.Being in charge: older women and their younger female kin
Carroll, Michael P.The sex of our gods
Maxwell, Robert J.Gerontocide
Murdock, George PeterSettlement patterns and community organization: cross-cultural codes 3
Bourguignon, ErikaDiversity and homogeneity in world societies

Associated Hypotheses (7)

Main AuthorHypothesis
Brown, Judith K."In those societies in which the contribution of women to subsistence is minimal, and in which post-marital residence is patrilocal, and in which descent is patrilineal, mothers-in-law will confine young wives and monitor their behavior and mothers-in-law will be punitive" (233).
Carroll, Michael P."Among those societies in which parents are the primary agents of socialization, cognatic and double-descent societies should give greater emphasis to female deities than should purely unilineal societies" (48).
Maxwell, Robert J.Gerontocide will be negatively associated with rule of descent (518).
Bourguignon, ErikaRule of descent will vary according to world region (57).
Murdock, George Peter"Matrilineal descent is almost invariably found in association with either avunculocal or matrilocal residence, patrilocal residence accompanies patrilineal, ambilineal and double descent, whereas bilateral descent coexists freely with all except avunculocal rule" (273-274)
Murdock, George PeterIn correlating descent with prevailing subsistence economy the distribution of cases refutes two evolutionary 19th century assumptions: 1) Matrilineal priority--there was only 1 case in 25 of matrilineal descent among hunter-gatherers 2) unilinear descent during the millenia when men subsisted by food-gathering in absence of agriculture and animal husbandry. 84 percent of hunter-gatherers are characterized by cognatic descent (275)
Murdock, George PeterPatrilineal descent clearly reflects the domenstication of large animals as shown by its occurrence among pastoral societies, as well as by the importance of domesticated animals in the economies of 21 of the 44 agricultural mercantile societies which are patrilineal (275)

Associated OCMs

  1. rule of descent
  2. kindreds and ramages