There are six possible ways of kin group membership:
1. Patrilineal:
Transmission of membership and/or resources takes place unilineally through the father’s lineage.
2. Matrilineal:
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Transmission of membership and/or resources takes place unilineally through the mother’s lineage.
3. Double:
Some resources are transmitted through the father’s lineage, others through the mother’s lineage. The two lineages are kept separate.
4. Cognatic:
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Resources can be transmitted through kin on both mother’s and father’s sides (bilaterally).
5. Parallel:
In this, men transmit to their sons and women to their daughters. This is, however, a rare form.
6. Crossing or alternating:
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Another rare variety which represents the opposite of the previous one: men transmit to their daughters and women to their sons.
Of the above, the first two principles are generally applicable, whereas the remaining four are exceptional only. “This simplistic typology should not lead anyone to believe that, for instance, persons in patrilineal societies are not related to their mother’s relatives.
Practically, all kinship systems organize kin relations on both the mother’s and the father’s sides, although rights, names and group membership frequently give priority to one side. In a patrilineal society, one’s commitment to the father’s lineage is, in most situations, stronger than one’s commitment to the mother’s.”