Re: B Ark Colonist

----- Original Message -----
From: "Edward Lipsett" <translation@intercomltd.com>

> On a related but quite different track, I would expect colonies to
trace
> descent through the mother, because the mother of a child is always
easy
> to determine at birth, while the father may not be. If the society is
> advanced enough to have genetic tracking, and the society permits its
> use, this wouldn't matter, but otherwise...  Other people may, of
> course, have different ideas, but I would imagine that babies get born
> out of wedlock rather more often in colonial societies, and
matriarchal
> lineage would make it a lot easier to eliminate the possible social
> stigma of being a "fatherless child".

Not if you look at the historical record. In practice, it depends on the
tradition of the country of origin.  Neither America, Australia, South
Africa nor Iceland (in Viking times) reckoned by matrilineal descent -
unless teh child was born out of wedlock, but that usually carried a
heavy
stigma.

Greetings