Residential Patterns

Just as societies regulate mate selection, so they designate where a couple resides. In preindustrial societies, most newlyweds live with one set of parents who offer them protection, support and assistance. Most common is the form of patrilocality (from the Greek, meaning “place of the father”), a residential pattern in which a married couple lives with or near the husband’s family. However, some societies favour matrilocality (from the Greek, meaning “place of the mother”), a residential pattern in which a married couple lives with or near the wife’s family. On the one hand, societies that engage in frequent local warfare tend toward patrilocality, so sons are closer home to offer protection. On the other, societies that engage only in distant warfare may be either matrilocal or patrilocal, depending on whether it is daughters or sons who have greater economic value (Ember and Ember 1991).

Industrial societies show yet another pattern. Finances permitting, they favour neolocality (from the Greek, meaning “new place”), a residential pattern in which a married couple lives apart from both sets of parents.

Patterns of Descent

Descent refers to the system by which members of a society trace kinship over generations. Most preindustrial societies trace kinship through just the mother’s or the father’s side of the family. Patrilineal descent, the more common, is a system tracing kinship through men. Children are related to others only through their fathers, so that fathers typically pass property on to their sons. Patrilineal descent characterizes most pastoral and agrarian societies, in which men produce the most valued resources. Less common is matrilineal descent, a system tracing kinship through women. Matrilineal descent, through which mothers pass property to their daughters, is found more frequently in horticultural societies, where women are the primary food producers.

Industrial societies with lesser gender inequality recognize bilateral descent (“two-sided descent”), a system tracing kinship through both women and men. In this pattern, children recognize people on both the mother’s side and the father’s side as relatives.

Patterns of Authority

The predominance of polygyny, patrilocality and patrilineal descent in the world reflects the universal presence of patriarchy. Mothers and wives exercise considerable power in every society, but it is evident through historical survey that no truly matriarchal society has ever existed. In industrial societies, more egalitarian family patterns are evolving, especially as the share of women in the labour force goes up. However, even here, men are typically heads of households. Parents across the continents mostly prefer boys to girls and most give children their father’s last name.