bilateral descent
- noun
- /ˌbaɪˈlætərəl dɪˈsɛnt/
- Specialized
:
descendencia bilateral
- In societies that practice bilateral descent, individuals inherit property from both their mother's and father's families.
Examples
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Her family follows bilateral descent, allowing her to claim heritage from both sides.
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In a bilateral descent system, children inherit from both sides of the family.
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Anthropologists compare bilateral descent systems to those that are strictly maternal or paternal.
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Many cultures practice bilateral descent to honor both parents' lineages.
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In cultures that utilize bilateral descent, family ties are equally recognized from both the mother's and father's lineage.
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The concept of bilateral descent signifies that children have a heritage that includes influences from both parental sides.
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With bilateral descent, an individual can trace their ancestry and claim rights from families on both the maternal and paternal sides.
How Complex
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase directly combines 'bilateral' (involving two sides) with 'descent' (lineage), so a learner who knows both words can infer it means lineage traced through both sides/parents. This is a straightforward compositional pattern found across languages and standard English compounding, so it should be transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Bilateral descent comes from the image of a family tree that goes down on both sides: bilateral means 'two sides' and descent means 'family line'. So the phrase means following family from both your mother's and your father's sides.