Relating to, based on, or tracing ancestral descent through the maternal line.
a system of descent or inheritance from mother to child, rather than from father to child.
Passed down exclusively from the mother.
tracing descent through the mothers line.
related by tracing common descent exclusively through females from a founding female ancestor.
family lineage (and sometimes inheritance) followed unilaterally through the mother and the female line of the family.
Descent is traced and property inherited through the female line.
Matrilineal societies are those in which family descent is traced through the mother's line.
Family descent and inheritance traced through the female line. (p. 15)