What is a matrilineal society?
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A matrilineal society is one in which family membership, and often names and property, pass through the mother's line. Children belong to their mother's clan. Examples include the Khasi and Garo of India, the Minangkabau of Indonesia, the Akan of Ghana, and the Diné (Navajo) and Hopi of the United States.
In a matrilineal system you are a member of your mother's family group, and so are your brothers and sisters. Your father belongs to a different group, that of his own mother. Inheritance of land, houses or titles follows the same line.
Matrilineal does not mean matriarchal. Men often still hold public leadership. In many such societies a mother's brother has authority over her children. Women generally have stronger rights to property and more security than in systems where descent passes through fathers.
Among the Khasi of Meghalaya, children take the mother's clan name and the youngest daughter inherits the ancestral home and cares for her parents. The Minangkabau of West Sumatra, who number several million, pass ancestral land from mother to daughter.
In the Haudenosaunee Confederacy of North America, clans pass through women, and clan mothers choose the chiefs. Matrilineal societies are a minority worldwide, but they are found on every inhabited continent, among farmers, herders and foragers alike. Other examples include the Akan of Ghana and the Garo of Meghalaya.