PATRILINEAL DESCENT AND THE PERMUTATIONS OF DESCENT SYSTEMS

There are several reasons why it is useful to consider systems where patrilineal descent groups predominate before going on to look at societies where descent groups are matrilineally or cognatically, and then at more complex or specialized system. This is an anthropologically traditional way of viewing descent, though one that has sexistovertones and can well raise feminist eyebrows or wrath. There are a better reasons than tradition for this approach.

First of all, patrilineal descent groupings are far more common than matrilineal ones. Keeping in mind the dangers of classing a society as patrilineal or matrilineal, it is worth looking at some statistics.
That patrilineal systems predominate statistically reflects first some ecological pressures. Predominantly pastoral societies, with a male dominated division of labor and usually considerable mobility, are characteristically patrilineally organized.

A HYPOTHETICAL PATRILINEAL DESCENT SYSTEM
There are many variations in this pattern in the tribal world, and we will glimpse a few of them. First, some important futures of patrilineal descent systems can be illustrated in terms of the Smiths and Joneses, and some needed technical terms defined.
First of all, note that the Elm Street Smiths are related by common descent: but so too are all the Smiths in the neighborhood, all the Smiths in the district, and according to tradition in town. That is descent categories can be formed at higher and higher levels.
Such descent groups and categories, based on descent from more and more remote ancestors, are called segmentary (Smith 1956). A part of a wider hypothetical genealogy of Smiths is illustrated in figure 9.
These systems are called segmentary because they are divided at each level into segments. Their genealogical structure is hierarchical.
It works because what looks at any single point in time as though it were stable and permanent arrangement of people, territories, and genealogical connections is in fact only a temporary crystallization.

LINEAGES AND CLANS
A unilineal descent group whose members trace their descent from a known ancestor and know the genealogical connections to that ancestor is technically called a lineage. In the case of the patrilineal Smiths and Joneses we can call the descent groupings patrilineages in a matrilineal system, they are called matrilineages. Note that lineages can occur at different hierarchical levels in a segmentary system. In segmentary systems, such “nested lineages” can be categorized as “maximal”, “medial”, and “minimal”. Lineages are distinguished however from unilineal descent groupings whose members believe they are descended from a common ancestor, but do not know the genealogical connections. Such categories or groups are called clans. Thus all the Smiths in our town form a patrilineal clan. When a society is conceived as divided into two parts, determined by descent these are called moieties (patri-moieties if one belongs to one’s father’s side, matri-moieties if one belongs to one’s mother’s side ). Finally, when several clans are allied into a single category, and there are three or more such clusters, the clusters are called phratries (sing phratry).
LOCAL GROUPS AND DESCENT GROUPS
Another important feature of a system of unilineal descent groups is that for any particular corporation and its territory there are two separate categories for membership. This can be clearly illustrated for the Elm Street Smiths.
In a patrilineal system, the relative strength of ties between a woman and her husband and between a woman and her brother is always important. In some systems, a woman retains very strong ties to her lineage, and her father or brother retain strong legal rights over her.
Much confusion in the anthropology of social organization has resulted from a failure to keep straight the difference between a descent group, which does not include in marrying spouses but excludes out marrying descent group members. Usually both are important. The trick is to find out in what contexts, and in what ways, and to keep from blurring them together as “the localized descent group” (Keesing 1971).

BUKTINYA APA

pernah nasruddin di angkat jadi hakim di desanya. ia menghadapi masalah yang sangat pelik.
dalam suatu perkara penyiksaan, sang korban menyatakan sang terdakwa telah menggigit telinganya. namun si terdakwa ngotot mengatakan bahwa si korrban itu telah menggigit telinganya sendiri.

"wah ini perkara pelik. dua keterangan bertentangan, sedangkan saksi tidak ada," kata nasruddin. "hanya ada satu cara pemecahannya. untuk itu sidang diskors setengah jam."
nasruddin segera masuk ke ruang sebelah ruang sidang. di sana ia mencoba menggigit telinganya sendiri. setiap kali di cobanya, ia langsung kehilangan keseimbangan dan jatuh terguling, kepalanya benjol-benjol.
setelah sidang di mulai lagi, nasruddin berkata, "coba periksa kepala si korban. kalau benjol-benjol berarti ia menggigit telinganya ssendiri, dan yang menang perkara si terdakwa. kalau kepalanya utuh saja, berarti telinganya memang di gigit si terdakwa."

TAWARAN MAKAN

nasruddin tampak agak pucat. ketika ditanya mengapa begitu, ia segera menjawab lemah, "aku sudah tiga hari tidak makan,,,"
"wah gawat!!! nasrudin, bagaimana nafsu makanmu?? kau sakit ya??
"sama sekali tidak... habis tiga hari ini tidak ada ada seorang pun yang menawariku makan!!!"

minerva 150

duh,,, mimin gw,,, bner2 bkin gw bingung.... koo g drbh,, bnyk bgt yg nyamain, klo dirubah, biayanya gde bgt....

padahal gw udh modif wat gnti2 n nmbh aksesoris, sprti :
knalpot magnum
footstep pro performance
windshild clear
stiker motor bkin di paso
koil pny mx ori
pj sm mj jg udh gnti
smp cakram depan gw gnti yg gde skalian,,,
apa lagi donk yg kurang????

NASRUDDIN MEMBAGI 5 TELUR

dalam masa penyerbuan raja turki oleh timurleng, raja yang agung itu pun sempat datang ke akshehir tempat kediaman nasruddinn. ketika memasuki kota, raja itu melihat nasruddin melilitkan handuk di kepalanya, dudk di pinggir jalan melihat arak-arakan sang raja. raja tertarik oleh lelaki yang berikat kepala handuk itu, dan memerintahkan prajuritnya untuk membawa nasruddin ke hadapannya. "siapa kamu?" tanya raja kepada nasruddin. "saya ini dewa bumi, " jawab nasruddin tenang. "nah, lantaran kau dewa bumi, tentu kau bisa membesarkan mata prajuritku yang sipit ini!!"

"lho, kalau begitu, baginda ini ternyata tidak memahami yang saya maksudkan. saya ini dewa bumi dan bukan dewa langit. kalau memang baginda memang menginginkan agar mata baginda yang sipit itu menjadi besar, seharusnya baginda memintanya kepada dewa langit, sebab dialah yang mengatur segala urusan dari pusar keatas. dan kalau baginda meminta tolong kepada saya, urusan saya adalah segala urusan dari pusar ke bawah, sebab saya ini dewa bumi..."
setelah itu, timurleng berbincang-bincang dengan nasruddin beberapa lamanya. raja itupun sangat terkesan oleh kecerdasannya. setelah puas berbincang-bincang, nasruddin pun diperbolehkan pulang.
beberapa hari kemudian, raja itupun memerintahkan kembali prajuritnya untuk memanggil nasruddin. katanya kepada nasruddin, "aku ingin kau membagi lim telur ini secara adil di antara kita bertiga."
tanpa ragu-ragu nasruddin mengambil lima telur itu lalu berkata, "yang mulia, ini sebutir telur untuk baginda sebab baginda sudah memiliki dua butir. ini sebutir untuk saya sebab saya juga sudah punya dua butir. lha yang tiga butir lagi untuk istri baginda, sebab dia tidak punya sebutir pun dibawah pusarnya."