Descent can often play a large roll on the social texture of a society. Descent, which is the tracing of kinship back to previous generations, can according to a society take different forms. One form of descent is that of unilineal which is divided up into two subsets consisting of patrilineal and matrilineal. Patrilineal descent is one in which the line of descent is traced through the male kin while matrilineal is through the female line. The Masai culture is a good example of a unilineal descent system with a patrilineal grouping. In general a patrilineal descent system places more importance on males and their place in the society while a matrilineal shifts the focus of the society to the females. Another subset of unilineal descent is clans. Clans are unilineal descent groups who are descended from either a common male line or a common female line. A good example of a patriclan or clan with male focus is the ancient Chinese samurais. Two other forms of descent are Cognatic where ther

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