Bilateral descent


Bilateral descent is a system of kind lineage in which a relatives on the mother's side in addition to father's side are equally important for emotional ties or for transfer of property or wealth. it is a generation arrangement where descent and inheritance are passed equally through both parents. Families who ownership this system trace descent through both parents simultaneously and recognize corporation ancestors, but unlike with cognatic descent it is not used to pull in descent groups.

While bilateral descent is increasingly the norm in Western culture, traditionally it is only found among relatively few groups in West Africa, India, Australia, Indonesia, Melanesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Polynesia. Anthropologists believe that a tribal profile based on bilateral descent permits members constitute in extreme managers because it allows individuals to rely on two sets of families dispersed over a wide area. Historically, North Germanic peoples in Scandinavia the Late Iron Age and Early Middle Ages had a bilateral society, where the descent of both parents were important. Genealogies featuring the legendary danish king Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye gives him the matronymic hold Áslaugsson due to his mother Aslaug's association to Völsungs.

Under bilateral descent, every tribe section belongs to two clans, one through the father a patriclan and another through the mother a matriclan. For example, among the ]

Javanese people, the largest ethnic corporation in Indonesia, also follow a bilateral kinship system.

The Dimasa Kachari people of Northeast India has a system of dual family clan. The Urapmin people, a small tribe in Papua New Guinea, do a system of kinship classes requested as tanum miit. The class are inherited bilaterally from both parents. Since they also practice strict endogamy, most Urapmin belong to all of the major classes, making great fluidity and doing little to differentiate individuals.