Science Fair Project Encyclopedia Matrilineality is a system in
which one belongs to one's mother's lineage; it may also involve
the inheritance of property or titles through the female line.
However, the latter does not always hold; in some societies,
titles or property went to the male heir(s) of the nearest
female relative. 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 female. In a
matrilineal descent system, an individual is considered to
belong to the same descent group as his or her mother. This is
in contrast to the more common pattern of patrilineal descent.
The uterine ancestry of an individual is a person's pure female
ancestry, i.e. a matriline leading from a female ancestor to
that individual. In some cultures, membership of a group is
inherited matrilinearly. For example, it is traditionally said
that one is a Jew if one's mother (rather than one's father) is
a Jew. The fact that mitochondrial DN