ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the much stronger restrictions on female sexuality among the Nepalese Brahmans than among the Nuer. Societies vary in terms of the extent to which women are considered full members of their natal patrilines, and in terms of what happens to their membership when they marry. But the specific power a patrilineal descent group has, or the way it functions, must be considered for each society separately. A group of people who trace their descent to a common ancestor through known links is called a lineage. The point is that, whatever its configuration, a patrilineal-patrilocal pattern suggests important, built-in differences in the marital and domestic situations of men and women. Lineal masculinity refers to the idea that males receive from their male ancestors and in their turn transmit to their male descendants a specific, shared masculine quality. The notions of purity and pollution, so important in the caste system, are also fundamental to kinship and gender among Brahmans.
