ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the importance of kinship in human societies, and then to the various ways in which kinship groups are organized. Families are virtually as important for people living in the rich democracies as they are for people living in the poorest traditional societies. In patrilineal societies the key relationships are between fathers and sons and between brothers. Everywhere, even in simple, small-scale societies, marriage and family life exist. Modern hunter-gatherer societies are as enveloped in kinship relations as their ancestral counterparts. But horticultural, agrarian, and pastoral societies also pay great attention to kinship. Kin groups can be thought of in terms of three levels of kinship extension. In matrilineal societies, the matrilineage is the property-owning group. Rights to the lineage's or clan's property pass through women but are usually controlled by men. Young men gain access to property by virtue of their membership in the matrilineage.
