unilinealadj.
1. Physical Anthropology. Of or relating to a kinship system in which group membership, inheritance, etc., are established through either the father's or the mother's lineage. Opposed to multilineal adj.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > [adjective] > relating to unilineal system
unilineal1935
1935 A. R. Radcliffe-Brown Structure & Function in Primitive Society (1952) ii. 36 The problem..of the nature and function of the unilineal transmission of rights.
1947 Advancem. of Sci. IV. 219/1 This leads to the emergence of more stable groupings of kin according to a principle of unilineal affiliation.
1957 V. W. Turner Schism & Continuity in Afr. Society x. 291 Nor is their polity one consisting of homologous unilineal descent groups.
1963 Brit. Jrnl. Sociol. 14 24 Both [patrilineal and matrilineal] kinds of lineage system are described as unilineal.
1964 J. Gould & W. L. Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 367/1 In a double unilineal system, while both parents are severally members of the same group as their child, he has kinsmen..who are not members of either of his unilineal groups.
1976 Times Lit. Suppl. 6 Aug. 992/1 Positive marriage rules which established alliance relations between unilineal descent groups.
2. Of a theory, progress, etc.: that adheres to one line of development, spec. that of uniform stages in the evolution of culture.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [adjective] > doctrines or theories > of cultural development
age and area1915
unilineal1957
possibilistic1962
1957 G. Clark Archaeol. & Society (ed. 3) vi. 173 Those who believed in the unilineal progress of culture.
1962 M. S. Zengel in J. A. Fishman Readings Sociol. of Lang. (1968) 298 It can be said that the 100 word list shows no more validity for this type of unilineal study than the 200 word list.
1968 Encycl. Brit. IX. 519/2 In the second half of the nineteenth century a belief in unilineal social evolution and the passage of all peoples through successive and similar stages of development was generally held by anthropologists and was not limited to them.
1980 Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Aug. 911/5 Hallpike seems to be a unilineal evolutionist for one kind of cognitive operation (that studied by developmental psychology), and a permissive relativist in the sphere of practical wisdom.
Derivatives
uniˈlinealism n. adherence to unilineal views.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > doctrines or theories
mutualism1842
pluralism1917
possibilism1925
primitivism1934
universalism1939
particularism1949
unilinealism1957
1957 K. A. Wittfogel Oriental Despotism ix. 371 (caption) The spread of a ‘Marxist-Leninist’ neo-unilinealism.
1984 Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Mar. 279/1 Soviet Marxism, as it crystallized during the Stalin period, had a clear and sharp outline, with its theory of a single dominant historical highway... This celebrated unilinealism is easy to attack.
uniˈlineally adv. in a unilineal manner.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > [adverb] > in a unilineal manner
unilineally1947
1947 Advancem. of Sci. IV. 219/2 Factors tending to produce both unilineal transmission of rights and status and groups of unilineally related kin.
1964 J. Gould & W. L. Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 367/1 A kind of discrete..descent group which in certain respects resembles a unilineally constructed group.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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adj.1935