<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> Matrilineality is the tracing of descent through the female line . It may also correlate with a societal system in which each person is identified with their matriline--their mother's lineage--and which can involve the inheritance of property and / or titles . A matriline is a line of descent from a female ancestor to a descendant (of either sex) in which the individuals in all intervening generations are mothers--in other words, a "mother line". In a matrilineal descent system, an individual is considered to belong to the same descent group as her or his mother . This matrilineal descent pattern is in contrast to the more common pattern of patrilineal descent from which a family name is usually derived . The matriline of historical nobility was also called her or his enatic or uterine ancestry, corresponding to the patrilineal or "agnatic" ancestry . </P> <P> In some traditional societies and cultures, membership in their groups was--and, in the following list, still is if shown in italics--inherited matrilineally . Examples include the Cherokee, Choctaw, Gitksan, Haida, Hopi, Iroquois, Lenape, Navajo and Tlingit of North America; the Kuna people of Panama; the Kogi and Carib of South America; the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, Indonesia and Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia; the Trobrianders, Dobu and Nagovisi of Melanesia; the Nairs of Kerala and the Bunts and Billava of Karnataka in south India; the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo of Meghalaya in northeast India; the Ngalops and Sharchops of Bhutan; Muslims and the Tamils in eastern Sri Lanka; the Mosuo of China; the Kayah of Southeast Asia, the Basques of Spain and France; the Akan including the Ashanti of west Africa; virtually all groups across the so - called "matrilineal belt" of south - central Africa; the Tuareg of west and north Africa; the Serer of Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania; and most Jewish communities . </P>

Kinship traced through the mother's family is called what kind of descent