Answer to Question #252715 in Sociology for janod

Question

Discuss the principles of inheritance succession and residence propensity to impact kin relationships in tradition societies

Answer 1

Children in patrilineal cultures are primarily considered members of their father's kin group and inherit the father's property at his death; in matrilineal cultures, kin membership is traced through the uterine line, so children belong to their mother's kinship (matrikin) rather than their father's. In matrilineal systems, a man's successors are his sister's children, not his own.

Marriage and residence regulations play a vital role in determining kinship claims such as succession and inheritance rights. Matrilineal societies are characterized by uxorilocal residency, in which a husband relocates to his wife's community. The household's economic livelihood is then based in the woman's village. Following divorce or the death of his wife, a husband is expected to return to his own village, and he loses the right to use the land in his wife's village. Children in matrilineal civilizations stay in their mother's village even if their mother dies since they are matrilineal kin.

The laws of residence in patrilineal communities are virilocal, which implies that following marriage, a woman returns to her husband's community. A legitimate marriage in patrilineal societies requires the husband and his family to give the bridewealth to the wife's family. If bridewealth had been paid, it was widely assumed that if the husband died, his wife would remain in his late husband's village, and that she would be "inherited" or "remarried" to one of her late husband's brothers, raising her children among the deceased man's kin. If no bridewealth was paid upon marriage, a widowed woman was frequently expected to return to her natal clan with her children. If the bridewealth had been paid, women were frequently forced to return it to the husband's family, as well as to leave the children with the husband and his relatives in the event of a divorce.