Lineage

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Lineage ([ lɪniɪdʒ ], f. , Plural : lineages; English: "group of a lineage") or single-line Appearance group referred to in the anthropology (international) play a large family nGroup, their relatives their common derivation from a stem nut or an ancestor derive, in single-line sequence either via the maternal line ( Matri- Lineage) or via the father-line ( Patri- Lineage). Such ethnic groups can be found as social units in many of the 1,300 ethnic groups and indigenous peoples around the world  , where the lineages see themselves as an independent solidarity and economic community , usually share land and often live together as a settlement group. While two generations live together in nuclear families (parents with children) and three in large families (with grandparents), a lineage includes other generations still alive (compare the world record of 7 generations in one family). All members of a lineage are related by blood ( biological relationship), all are descended from the mother or father (deceased) of the oldest living generation. Often more than 10 generations of ancestors can be  named. Many lineages have existed for centuries, carried on by the youngest generation according to the parentage rules that apply to them: in matri-lineages, sons cannot pass on their family affiliation to their own children (compare the Khasi in northern India), in patri-lineages the daughters can not (compare the Nuer in South Sudan): Children always belong to the family of their “lineage” (see also the matri- / patri- local choice of residence ). A lineage as a whole therefore contains only half of all descendants: either those of their female or that of their male relatives.

An extensive lineage can be subdivided into larger and smaller parts, into individual core and large families, referred to as individual segments - entire lineages can in turn form the segments of a social lineage (see also segmentary societies ). As a rule, several lineages that belong together are organized as an independent clan , whereby this large association as a whole is usually derived from a mythical or legendary ancestor (ancestor / mother); For some peoples, the different clans refer to symbolic totem animals , for example there may be the bear clan versus the wolf clan.

Lineage members

A lineage includes all descendants (of both sexes ) of the original ancestral mother or ancestor ; many lineages have hundreds of relatives. Membership in the Lineage is only passed on via one parent : in Matri-Lineages , children belong to the parentage group of the mother, in Patri-Lineages to the group of the father. This division mostly corresponds to the choice of common place of residence after a marriage : matrilocal with the wife or her mother, or patrilocal with the husband or his father. Spouses do not belong to their own lineage, but almost always come from other ancestry groups ( exogamous marriage rule : outside of their own group). After a marriage, each partner continues to belong to their own lineage, only a few patriotic lineages consider married women to their own group.

Lineages are basically limited to members of the same parentage, but in special cases they can transfer membership to outsiders through adoption or another form of "fictitious relationship" (such as milk relationship , blood brotherhood or sworn brotherhood ). In Matri-Lineages this can only be done by a woman, in Patri-Lineages only by a man.

The fact that lineages also include side lines from corresponding siblings of the ancestors, for example, distinguishes a patri-lineage from a noble lineage of the European cultural area : With it, only the oldest heir sons form the main line - younger brothers can form independent side lines , sisters, on the other hand, belong to a marriage after marriage Line of her husband, as well as her children (based on the Roman law of agnation ).

Settlement areas

Longhouse of the North American Iroquois (1885)

The members of a lineage can all live under one roof. A longhouse of the matrilineal Iroquois in North America offered accommodation for up to 500 people of the same lineage. Many Lineages live together in small settlements, known as hamlets , or spread out over several nearby towns. In the matrilineal Tolai in Papua New Guinea , the members of a lineage also live widely distributed from one another, but continue to see themselves as members of the same family and share land ownership.

Functions of a lineage

A lineage often forms a stable solidarity and economic community, it takes on legal, religious and political tasks for its members and represents them corporatively to the outside, in the form of a corporation .

Multiple lineages can form clans (common ancestry), alliances , a tribe, or an entire society . The social organization of many of the world's 1,300  ethnic groups and indigenous peoples is determined by lineages. In races with two different lineages ( moiety system), these are often subdivided into lineages as local subgroups (segments). If the two lineages consist of a maternal line and a patriotic line , there are both Matri and Patri lineages.

In societies that are organized without central power ( segmentary ) and without a head ( acephalic ), the lineages also assume political functions. The social order is formed through the interplay of lineages, which are understood as segments (parts) of the same type and of equal rank . The lineages cooperate through unanimous consensus . A good example is the well-researched Confederation of the Matrilineal Iroquois in North America.

exploration

The British anthropologists Meyer Fortes and Edward E. Evans-Pritchard described the "lineage theory" (descent theory) in the 1940s, according to which a lineage system is to be understood as the basis of the political structure of " segmentary societies " (without a central institution) . In recent decades, ethnosociology has criticized this theory for attributing too great importance to descent in general for the social organization of a society.

Lineages are with clans, phratries (associations clan) and Moiety -Erblinien superior as " single-line descent sgruppen" summarized (unilineal descent groups) . They are not congruent with kinship groups ( Kindreds ), these consist of the personal network of a single person to relatives of both parents .

See also

literature

Web links

  • Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: ad. Term Descent Theory or Lineage Theory / ad. Term lineage. (PDF file: 1.8 MB, 58 pages) (No longer available online.) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization (Part 2/5). Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2011, pp. 47–63 and 71–78 , archived from the original on October 21, 2013 (documents for their lecture in the summer semester 2011).;
  • Brian Schwimmer: Segmentary Lineages. In: Kinship and Social Organization. Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Canada, 1995 (English, maximum and minimum lineage segments; part of a comprehensive study tutorial on social organization).;

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b J. Patrick Gray: Ethnographic Atlas Codebook . (PDF file: 2.4 MB, 52 pages, without page numbers). In: World Cultures . Volume 10, No. 1, 1998, pp. 86–136, here p. 104: Table 43 Descent: Major Type , accessed on October 10, 2018 (English; one of the few evaluations of all 1,267 ethnic groups recorded worldwide at that time).
    1267 Ethnic groups = quote: “ 584 Patrilineal […] 160 Matrilineal […] 52 Duolateral […] 49 Ambilineal […] 11 Quasi-lineages […] 349 bilateral […] 45 Mixed […] 17 Missing data […].
    Percentage of all 1267 ethnic groups worldwide (1998):
    584 = 46.1% patri- linear : origin from the father and his forefathers
    160 = 12.6% matri- linear : origin from the mother and her foremothers
    052 = 04.1% bi - linear, duolateral : Different from mother and father from
    049 = 03.9% ambi- linear :-selectable
    011 = 00.9% parallel : quasi-lines, 2 sexually separate lines
    349 = 27.6% bilaterally kognatisch : origin of mother and father (as in western culture )
    045 = 03.6% mixed + 17 = 1.6% missing data.
    The Ethnographic Atlas by George P. Murdock now contains data sets on 1,300 ethnic groups (as of 2015 in InterSciWiki ), of which often only samples were evaluated, for example in the HRAF research project , a large-scale database for holistic cultural comparisons of 400 recorded peoples.
  2. Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: ad. Term lineage. (PDF) (PDF file: 1.8 MB, 58 pages). (No longer available online.) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization (part 2/5). Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2011, pp. 71–78, here p. 71 , archived from the original on October 21, 2013 ; accessed on October 10, 2018 . Quote: “ad. Term lineage: Descent groups that are formed on the basis of unilinear descent are referred to as lineages (lines). The members of the lineage trace their descent either to a common ancestor (in the case of patrilinear descent) or to a common ancestor (in the case of matrilinear descent). (cf. BARGATZKY 1985: p. 55) […] Such lineages operate in numerous companies as corporate units. "Patrilineal or matrilineal descent unambiguously defines who is eligible for membership in a corporate group." (KEESING 1975: p. 19) ".
  3. 6 generations in Canada 2013 (compare generation names ): Gerd Braune: Ottawa: Six generations live in a Canadian family. In: Badische Zeitung. July 19, 2013, accessed October 10, 2018 (with photo): “Baby Ethan is the youngest member of the Steiner family in Mississauga near Toronto. It is believed to be the only family in Canada that has six generations. […] Doreen Byers, who has been great-great-great-grandmother since the weekend, is 86 years old […] Mother Priscilla (19), next to grandma Stephanie (34) and great-grandma Steiner (51), in the background great-great Grandma Marilyn Cross (68) […]. Note: That is 5  matrilineal generations of women up to the male baby (continuous mother line). ” 7 generations in the USA 1989, the world record: Guinness Book of Records : Most living generations (ever). 2015, accessed on October 10, 2018 . Quote: “ The most generations alive in a single family has been seven. […] Augusta Bunge (USA) aged 109 […] her daughter aged 89, her grand-daughter aged 70, her great-grand-daughter aged 52, her great-great grand-daughter aged 33 and her great-great-great grand-daughter aged 15 on the birth of her great-great-great-great grandson on 21 January 1989. ”Note: This is 6 matrilineal generations of women up to the male baby (continuous mother line). Almost 200 offspring were certified to a 93-year-old great-great-grandmother living in Australia in 1912: Newspaper report: The Fifth Generation . In: The Brisbane Courier . Australia, May 25, 1912, p. 12 ( online at nla.gov.au), quoted: “ Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Crouch, Great-great-grandmother, 93; Mrs. John Negus, great-grandmother, 64; Mr. John Edward Negus, grandfather, 45; Mrs. Young, Mother, and her baby. The total number of Mrs. Crouch's descendants is nearly 200.
     

  4. ^ A b c Britannica Online : lineage (sociology). (No longer available online.) 2008, archived from the original on February 8, 2018 ; accessed on October 10, 2018 (English). Quote: “ lineage, descent group reckoned through only one parent, either the father (patrilineage) or the mother (matrilineage). All members of a lineage trace their common ancestry to a single person. A lineage may comprise any number of generations but commonly is traced through some 5 or 10. Notionally, lineages are exclusive in their membership. In practice, however, many cultures have methods for bestowing lineage membership on individuals who are not genetically related to the lineage progenitor. The most common of these is adoption, although other forms of fictive kinship are also used. Lineages are normally corporate, meaning that their members exercise rights in common and are subject to obligations collectively.
  5. ^ Brian Schwimmer: Segmentary Lineages. In: Kinship and Social Organization. Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Canada, 1995, accessed October 10, 2018 .
  6. Lexicon entry: Lineage. In: Wissen.de. Retrieved October 10, 2018 : "Lineage ([...] English," descent, gender "): a social unit made up of people of the same origin either in the paternal line (Patrilineage) or maternal line (Matrilineage) and generally exogamous is. In contrast to the clan, the members of a lineage can prove their genealogical connection with the founding ancestor. The lineage usually forms an economic and solidarity community as well as a settlement group. "
  7. ^ Brian Schwimmer: Descent Group Functions. In: Kinship and Social Organization. Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Canada, 1995, accessed October 10, 2018 .
  8. ^ Helmut Lukas, Vera Schindler, Johann Stockinger: Alliance system. In: Online Interactive Glossary: ​​Marriage, Marriage, and Family. Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1997, accessed on October 10, 2018 : "Alliance system: A relationship system that produces or is expressed through fixed and permanent marriage relationships through marriages repeated over several generations between unilinear descent groups or other kinship groups. "
  9. Meyer Fortes , Edward E. Evans-Pritchard (Ed.): African Political Systems . Oxford University Press, London 1940, p. 7 (English; side view from the 4th edition from 1950 at archive.org).
  10. Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: ad. Term descent theory or lineage theory. (PDF) (PDF file: 1.8 MB, 58 pages). (No longer available online.) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization (part 2/5). Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2011, pp. 47–63, here p. 47 , archived from the original on October 21, 2013 ; accessed on October 10, 2018 . Quote: “ It was particularly widespread in Great Britain and has become known under the name» Descendenztheorie «or» Lineage theory «. In the last two decades, however, this approach has been heavily criticized (see, for example, the work of Adam KUPER: Lineage Theory: A Critical Restrospect. In: Annual Review of Anthropology , Vol. 11, 1982, pp. 71-95 ) ”.