PATRILOCAL RESIDENCE

Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2009, Matrilocal Residence, Patrilocal Residence

Patrilocality refers to the custom of patrilocal residence. The custom of a newly married couple taking up residence in the groom's family household or village.

Patrilocal designates or pertains to a pattern of marriage in which the couple settles in the husband's home or community.

Matrilocal residence is the custom or practice of a new husband moving to his wife's village or household after marriage. Matrilocal residence tends to be found among matrilineal societies.

Matrilocal designates or pertains to a pattern of marriage in which a married couple settles in the wife's home or community.

An Evaluation of Alternative Theories of Matrilocal Versus Patrilocal Residence
Carol R. Ember
Hunter College of the City University of New York, Cross-Cultural Research, Vol. 9, No. 2, 135-149 (1974) DOI: 10.1177/106939717400900202
This paper evaluates two alteniative theories of the conditions favoring matrilocality-one proposed by M. Ember and C. R. Ember and the other by Dicale. New cross-cultural evidence relating type of warfare to societal size suggests that warfare is more likely to play a role in determining residence than vice versa, contrary to Dicale's theory. A new model, taking Divale's findings into account, is presented.

Revolutionary social change and patrilocal residence in China.
Whyte MK
Ethnology, 1979 Jul;8(3):211-27.
Abstract: The degree to which the patrilocal form of residence of the Chinese peasant family has been altered by the revolutionary changes initiated by the Chinese communists since 1949 is examined. The source of information is intensive and semi-structured interviews conducted in Hong Kong in 1973-1974 with former residents of 63 different villages in Kwangtung, the province adjacent to the British colony. The interviews were basically ethnographic in nature. The respondents served as informants "at a distance" about the villages they had lived in. It was learned that important changes in peasant family life have occurred.

The destruction of lineage power and ritual life, the collectivization of agriculture, the expansion of rural education, the mobilization of women for regular field labor, and other revolutionary changes have all had a marked effect. It is because of such changes that young people have more freedom in selecting their mates, authority within the home is not organized so hierarchically, and the position of the new bride in her husband's family has been strengthened. None of these changes has served to have a necessary weakening effect on the patrilocal residence principle. In actuality, the pattern of uprooting women from their natal homes and incorporating them into the homes of their husbands has been reinforced by the structure created by the Chinese Communists and by a variety of official policies. Consequently, patrilocal residence continues despite the occasional ambivalence shown in efforts to publicize the many advantages of uxorilocal residence. This must be because the Chinese leadership accepts the fact that the kinds of strong, patrilocally based domestic units that are being perpetuated help to keep peasants rooted in their villages and willing to give both their energy and their loyalty to their leaders. These considerations cannot be ignored in light of the constant battle required to feed China's population.