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nonunilinear descent groups in the plateau culture area
Author(s) -
ACKERMAN LILLIAN A.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1994.21.2.02a00040
Subject(s) - descent (aeronautics) , plateau (mathematics) , ancestor , geography , group (periodic table) , genealogy , demography , sociology , history , archaeology , mathematics , mathematical analysis , chemistry , organic chemistry , meteorology
Evidence is presented that nonunilinear descent groups existed in the traditional Plateau Culture Area and still persist today. Each extended family traces itself through either males or females back to a founding ancestor, making such a group a nonunilinear descent group. This is noteworthy because most such descent groups have been identified among horticulturalists, whereas traditional Plateau societies had a fishing‐gathering‐hunting economy. [ Plateau, nonunilinear descent groups, extended families, land tenure, naming, family historians ]