What is "matrilineal"

Usage examples of "matrilineal".

And the rumor that crossed the waters was this: The Cruarch of Alba was dead, slain, it was said, by his own son, who sought to overturn the old matrilineal rites of succession and seize rulership of Alba for himself.

For this purpose, as well as for inheriting property, matrilineal descent is usually regarded as typical of Micronesia, although patrilineal and mixed groups may also be found.

There was friction between the hordes, made worse by Nomadic outlaws who had departed from the matrilineal system and attracted young runaways from the conquered Jackrabbit south of the Nady Ann.

Very likely the taboo against capturing wild horses could not survive without the Weejus to enforce it, and the motherless ones, once they settled down, were not likely to restore the matrilineal inheritance of wild Nomads.

Jewish by birth, not my mother, which left me nowhere in a matrilineal culture.

Vaedorie, small and intensely dark, looked like one of the Nimosei wives those northern tribesmen had taken to acquire the property that, in the Old Empire, had passed by matrilineal succession.

The Egyptian throne is matrilineal, which means the king becomes the king through marriage to the queen or to the eldest-born princess of the line.

It would have been of no small merit to have met the Cruarch of Alba and his heir-his sister-son and not his son, as the Pictish rule of descent is matrilineal, a fact which would also affect my life in ways I could not imagine.

Brude, the descent of royalty in my line was matrilineal for centuries, handed down through the queens, not our kings.

Succession is based not just on close relation to the former Queen, but on the degree of blood in matrilineal descent from Ishara.

He could imagine the effect this would have on races that were unisexual, or where sexual discrimination was not present, or, worse, in a matrilineal society.

Alta, succession to rule was not in a direct line, nor was it even matrilineal as it was in Tia, where the man who married the firstborn daughter of the Great King was the man who succeeded to the throne.

We may, however, perhaps speak of the group being matrilineal, meaning by this only to denote the fact that kinship ties, such as they were, were, and, under the circumstances, could only be, established through the mother.

She was sixteen, an acceptable age for love affairs or mothering among the matrilineal Hobbs Landians.