ABSTRACT
The Kachin pattern has closer parallels in African societies where there are aristocratic lineages, clans or classes which receive periodical tribute or services from client populations in return for protection and the maintenance of political and ritual security. Descriptively, descent can be defined as a genealogical connection recognized between a person and any of his ancestors or ancestresses. In short, whereas filiation is the relation that exists between a person and his parents only, descent refers to a relation mediated by a parent between himself and an ancestor, defined as any genealogical predecessor of the grand-parental or earlier generation. A grandparent is therefore a persons closest ancestor; and this, as people know, is often shown in kinship terminologies, as among the Ashanti and the Tallensi. The question of what constitutes a 'corporate group' has received much attention.
