While patrilineal traditions, like passing on the father’s last name to children, persist, most families in industrial societies trace descent through both men and women.
Some of these inequalities might be obvious, based on what we’ve talked about already – like patrilineal lines of descent that make it impossible for women to hold wealth or gain power.
" M'Lord Baron." The man who stood outside the doorfield of the Baron's bedchamber was low built, gross of face and body, with the Harkonnen paternal line's narrow-set eyes and bulge of shoulders.
For instance, whether marriage is polygamous or monogamous, or whether it is patrilineal or matrilineal, has a rather strong influence on the kind of daily experiences husbands, wives, and children have with one another.