Definition of "matrilineal" [matrilineal]

• Relating to, based on, or tracing ancestral descent through the maternal line. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Such an emphasis, or reasoning, for the * mwali life position would make far more obvious sociocultural sense in matrilineal and matrifocal societies than imagining that marriage and male sexual pleasure were most important."
• "The attention given to the new mother by her matrilineage foregrounds the importance of children to the maintenance of clan and lineage in matrilineal societies. 22 Fittingly, the women involved in this were those clanswomen who had given birth to the young women themselves and guided them through later female initiation instruction, which itself aimed above all at securing fertility, a topic we will return to later in the chapter."
• "The attentiveness Ruvu people gave, particularly Ruvu women, to guaranteeing successful births and infant survival is an example of the importance placed on bearing children in matrilineal Ruvu societies."