List of matrilineal or matrilocal societies

Short description: none

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.

The Akans of Ghana, West Africa, are Matrilineal. Akans are the largest ethnic group in Ghana. They are made of the Akims, Asantes, Fantis, Akuapims, Kwahus, Denkyiras, Brongs, Akwamus, Krachis, etc.

"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)

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|
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Akan  | Africa | Ghana  | Both  | Matrilineal  | Meyer Fortes[1] | 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 of America | Matrilocal  | Matrilineal  |  |
Chickasaw  | North America | United States of America |  | Matrilineal  |  |
Choctaw  | North America | United States of America |  | Matrilineal  |  |
Danes  | Europe | Læsø  | Matrilocal  | Matrilineal[2] | Bjarne Stoklund[3] | 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[4]
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) | North America | United States of America , Canada | Matrilocal  | Matrilineal  | Lewis Henry Morgan  | 1901
Hopi  | North America | United States of America | Matrilocal  | Matrilineal  | Barbara Freire-Marreco  | 1914
South America | Ecuador  |  |
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 | [5] | Matrilineal  | Judith Buber Agassi[6] | 1989
Karen  | Asia | Burma  | Matrilocal  | Matrilineal  | Harry Ignatius Marshall[7] | 1922
Kerinci [fr] | Asia | Indonesia  | Matrilocal  | Matrilineal  | C.W. Watson[8] | 1992
Khasi  | Asia | India | Matrilocal  | Matrilineal  | P. R. T. Gurdon[9] | 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 of America |  | 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[10]
Martine Gestin, Nicole-Claude Mathieu[11] | 1942
Nubians  | Africa | Sudan  |  |  | Ernest Godard  | 1867
Ovambo  | Africa | Namibia  |  | Matrilineal  | Maija Hiltunen (Tuupainen)[12] | 1970
Seminole  | North America | United States of America |  | Matrilineal  |  |
Serer

subgroups: Saafi, Ndut, Palor, Laalaa, Noon and Niominka.
| Africa | Senegal, Gambia and Mauritania  | Patrilocal  | Both  | Henry Gravrand[13]

Charles Becker[14]

| 1990

1993

Siraya  | Austronesia | Taiwan  | Duolocal, uxorilocal  | Matrilineal  | Shepherd & Candidius  | 1995
Tai people  | Asia |  | Matrilocal  |  |  |
Tlingit  | North America | United States of America , and Canada | Matrilocal  | Matrilineal  | Aurel Krause  | 1885
Tsimshian  | North America | United States of America , 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 | [15] |
Rhade (Ê Đê) | Asia | Vietnam, Cambodia | Matrilocal | Matrilineal | [16] |
Amis | Asia | Taiwan | Matrilocal | Matrilineal |  |
Han Taiwanese (antiquated, mostly rural) | Asia | Taiwan | Matrilocal | Matrilineal |  | [17]
Western Apache | North America | United States of America | Matrilocal  | Matrilineal  |  |
Akimel Oʼodham (Pima) | North America | United States of America | Matrilocal  |  |  |
Muscogee  | North America | United States of America |  | Matrilineal  |
Tsenacommacah (Powhatan confederacy) | North America | United States of America |  | Matrilineal  |  |
Wampanoag  | North America | United States of America | Matrilocal  | Matrilineal  |
Nipmuc  | North America | United States of America |  | Matrilineal  |
Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico  | North America | United States of America |  | Matrilineal  | Paul Kirchhoff[18] | 1954
Keres  | North America | United States of America |  | Matrilineal  | Paul Kirchhoff[18] | 1954
Zuni  | North America | United States of America |  | Matrilineal  | Paul Kirchhoff[18] | 1954

## References

1. ↑ 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.
2. ↑ only in informal everyday language.
3. ↑ 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
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. http://mailstar.net/gimbutas.html. "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.""
5. ↑ see Jewish views of marriage
6. ↑ Agassi, Judith Buber, (1989) "Theories of Gender Equality: Lessons from the Israeli Kibbutz", Gender and Society, 3/2, 160-186.
7. ↑ 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
8. ↑ C. W. Watson Kinship, Property and Inheritance in Kerinci, Central Sumatra 1992 ISBN:0 904938 19 0
9. ↑ The Khasis by P. R. T. Gurdon
10. ↑ Guy, Paul (October–December 1942). "Sur une coutume locale de droit musulman de l'Archipel des Comores" (in French). Revue algérienne, tunisienne et marocaine de législation et de jurisprudence: pp. 78–79.
* Laurent Sermet. "Loi et coutume en Grande-Comore" (in fr). http://www.anthropologieenligne.com/pages/magnahouliA.html.
11. ↑ Gestin, Martine; Mathieu, Nicole-Claude (2007) (in French). Une maison sans fille est une maison morte. Maison des sciences de l'homme.
* "Une maison sans fille est une maison morte". http://www.franceculture.fr/oeuvre-une-maison-sans-fille-est-une-maison-morte-dir-de-martine-gestin.
12. ↑ Marriage in a matrilineal African tribe: A social anthropological study of marriage in the Ondonga tribe in Ovamboland.
13. ↑ (in French) Gravrand, Henry, "La civilisation sereer, vol. II: Pangool", Nouvelles éditions africaines, Dakar (1990), pp 193-4, ISBN:2-7236-1055-1
14. ↑ (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)
15. ↑ Phuong, Tran Ky; Lockhart, Bruce (2011-01-01) (in en). The Cham of Vietnam: History, Society and Art. NUS Press. ISBN 978-9971-69-459-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=GUHeBgAAQBAJ&q=Balamon+Bani+Cham&pg=PA325.
16. ↑ 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.
17. ↑ Kleinman, A.; Lin, T. Y. (29 June 2013). Normal and Abnormal Behavior in Chinese Culture. ISBN 9789401749862. https://books.google.com/books?id=SXvyCAAAQBAJ&q="taiwan"++marriages+taking+wife's+surname&pg=PA172.
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 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

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