ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the internal organization of the Nuaulu clan for the period 1970–2015, why clans can be considered to be patrilineal ‘descent groups’, their division into complementary diarchic sacred houses and processes of segmentation to form new sacred houses, and sub-clans. Examples are provided of lines and lineages within existing clans. Particular attention is given to bonds of affiliation between paternal and maternal kin, especially given the claim of an earlier Dutch structuralism for the existence of an underlying region-wide tendency towards double descent. The problem is looked at in relation to terminology, rules, inheritance and property transfer, the evidence of residence and the formation of corporate groups.
