| Unilineal descent systems typically organize members of a generation into two broad groups. |
| The concept is alien to African customary law: property is held by, and transmitted through, lineages or unilineal descent groups. |
| They are bilateral, unilineal, ambilineal and double descent. |
| A lineage is a unilineal descent group that can demonstrate their common descent from a known apical ancestor. |
| Early theories positing the simple, unilineal evolution of societies from traditional to industrial model are now seen as too simplistic. |
| It became apparent that the depiction of societies as neatly ordered by unilineal descent into clearly bounded, nested units of different scale was quite far from everyday political reality. |
