Matrilineal descent is found in South Asia, in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Sumatra, Tibet, South China, many Indonesian islands, as well as in aboriginal North America and Africa. What do all of these societies have in common?

The common thing about all these societies is that they all adhere to the kinship system in which the ancestral descent is traced the maternal lines. Lineage means the group of individuals tracing descent from a common ancestor, in Matrilineal society the individuals are related to each other through the maternal lines. Garo and Khasi tribe of India follow Matrilineality.