Some cultures have patrilineal inheritance, where only male children can inherit, or matrilineal succession, where property can only pass along the female line. Others have egalitarian inheritance, without discrimination based on gender and/or birth order.
Africa
Southern Africa The social structure prevalent among the southern Bantu informed their religious beliefs. The expansion of southern Bantu peoples, such as for example the Xhosa, is attributed to the fission of younger sons. Patrilineal primogeniture prevailed among the Xhosa ("each eldest son, upon the death of his father, inherits all the property appertaining to his mother's house"), the Pondo, the Tswana, the Ndebele, the Swazi, the Zulus, the Sotho, the Tsonga, the Venda and most other southern Bantu peoples; among them in general the first son was conceived of as superior to his siblings. The Zulus also practiced patrilineal primogeniture, allowing only minimal grants of land to younger sons. Customs of male primogeniture also prevailed among the Sotho. Precedence within clans and tribes based on patrilineal primogeniture was also common among the Khoi and the Damara.
West Africa The Hausa did not have the conical clan as their system of social organization (in Africa, this system predominated mostly among southern African peoples), but had a complex system of hereditary social stratification as well. The British thought that the Hausa Law of Primogeniture was bad because it encouraged usury and mortgage.
East Africa A system of ranking and patrilineal primogeniture similar to that of many southern African peoples seems to have traditionally prevailed among the Nilotic peoples of South Sudan with regards to land (the eldest son of the first wife was the heir of his father's land, residential and arable, and the land of each house was inherited by the heir of that house, i.e., the eldest son of the head wife in the house); thus, a similar lineage system prevailed among some Nilotic peoples like the Lugbara or the Dinka.
Central Africa Sahlins considered the conical clan typical of some central African Bantu lineage organizations. Éric de Dampierre found this type of social organization to be prevalent among the Azande. Patrilineal primogeniture also prevailed among the Songye and the Buduma, according to the Ethnographic Atlas.
Austronesia
General In traditional Austronesian societies (roughly those of modern-day Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, East Timor, Brunei, Madagascar and Oceania), seniority of birth and of descent generally determined rank, often leading to the fission of those lowest in rank (younger sons from younger branches), a fact often cited by anthropologists as the cause of Austronesian expansion throughout Southeast Asia, Oceania and even the Indian Ocean, in places such as Madagascar and Mauritius. Other terms have also been used to describe this type of social organization, such as "status lineage" (Goldman) "apical demotion" (Fox) or "ramage" (Firth). Sahlins also created the concept of the "Big Man", a type of man in Melanesian societies who becomes a leader not due to his fraternal birth order as in Polynesian societies, but to his ability and charisma. Melanesian societies could either be dominated by the conical clan as Polynesian societies or by an egalitarian system of social organization as most Papuan societies (though even some Papuan societies were characterized by a predominance of patrilineal primogeniture, like for example the society of Goodenough Island). In Micronesia, the system was matrilineal and brothers succeeded each other in order of seniority; when the line of brothers was extinguished, the eldest son of the eldest sister succeeded, and so on in each successive generation.
Polynesia
New Guinea Richard F. Salisbury described a sort of conical-like clan structure similar to the Polynesian one, although of a much less developed nature, in New Guinea.
Asia
China The ramage or conical prevailed in early China, during the Longshan culture period and the period of the Three Dynasties (Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties). During the time of the Zhou dynasty, patrilineal primogeniture, also called the tsung-fa system, was also the norm. The tsung-fa system was also called "extensive stratified patrilineage". Strong traits of the tsung-fa system of patrilineal primogeniture survived in the lineage organizations of north China until the communist era. This type of unlineal descent-group later became the model of the Korean family through the influence of Neo-Confucianism, as Zhu Xi and others advocated its re-establishment in China.
South Asia In South Asia, the Aryans were also organized in a system of ranked patrilines where senior patrilines were superior to junior patrilines. The Paite had a similar system, strongly based on primogeniture and patrilineality and reinforced by a characteristic system of name-giving: A conical clan system also prevailed among the Nagas. In the beginning it vas based on a principle of male ultimogeniture, being very similar to Kachin gumsa; however, when all available land had been divided between communities in a given neighbourhood, male primogeniture became the dominant principle.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
