Forms of Descent Groups | Anthropology Optional for UPSC PDF Download

Forms of Descent Groups
In many parts of the world, a descent group is more than just a group of relatives providing warmth and a sense of belonging; it may be a tightly organized working unit providing security and services. In the course of what is often a difficult and uncertain life. The tasks performed by descent groups are manifold. One of their most important social functions is generally the regulation o f marriage by establishing which person a member of the group may marry. Since unilineal descent-groups are usually exogamous, members of the group must look beyond its membership for eligible mates. In Turk society of the Western Pacific for example, the largest group is the metriclan and a person cannot marry a member of his matrilineage or matriclan. Instead he must go outside his descent group to seek a partner.
The descent group also acts as an economic unit providing mutual aid to its member it may support the infirm or help in case of marriage or death. But the unity of the descent group is perhaps most apparent on a political level, especially in time of war. The descent group also acts as a repository of religious traditions. Ancestor worship is a powerful force acting to reinforce group solidarity.
The groups which are formed on the principles of kinship are the Kinship based groups. Lineage, Clan, Phratry and  Moiety are the examples of kinship based groups. Kinship based groups are the ones which constitute kinsmen. The members of a kinship based group can be related to each other through birth or marriage. These are also called as Consanguineal kin or Affinal Kin, respectively. The kinship based groups listed above are the ones which constitute people who are related to each other through parentage i.e., consanguineal kin. These are also called as Descent groups. The membership, in the descent groups is determined by rules or the principles of descent "which we have discussed earlier. Allocation of individuals to a descent group is technically known as Filiation. Filiation can.be thro ugh-the father's line or mother's line or both. The descent groups can be further classified on the basis of the rules of descent governing that group. In this context, they can be classified as unilineal descent groups, ambilineal descent groups, double unilineal descent groups and mixed descent groups.
A Unilineal descent group is a kinship based group whose members reckon or trace their descent through one sex only. Thus, unilineal descent groups may be Patrilineal or Matrilineal, the former constituting the members who trace their descent through the male line-and the latter with those who trace their descent through the female line. A patrilineal or matrilineal descent group can be a lineage, clan, phratry or moiety.
A Double unilineal descent group is also called as double descent group. Here the members believe themselves to have descended from both the father's patrilineal group and the mother's matrilineal group.
Kin groups based on different forms of mixed descent may be of several varieties. In parallel descent groups, sons affiliate themselves with their father's kin and daughters affiliate themselves with mother's kin. In cross-sex descent groups sons affiliate themselves with mother's kin group and vice-versa.