Is ethnicity patrilineal or matrilineal in your culture?

[Smaug]

I read that it exists in some Balkan countries, and was one of the reasons for the rape of women during the Yugoslav wars. Ethnicity was regarded as patrilineal, so children born to the raped women would inherent their rapist father's ethnicity.

And I believe among Jews ethnicity is matrilineal.

Yes, "Jewishness" is matrilineal. This concept exists in the Middle East. For example, an Arab is considered an Arab if the father was Arab. Ottoman influence in the Balkans might explain their behaviour.

[Ouistreham]

Contrary to almost all cultures on planet Earth, European nations are as a whole bilinear and bilocal.
An explicit preference for the father side exists in noble lineages though (an innovation introduced by the Frankish Salic Law).
Slavic, Baltic and Magyar cultures have a slight bias in favour of patrilinearity (Finland and Italy to some extent too), but nowhere near to the extreme degree of patrilinearity that is prevalent in China, India or the Islamo-Arabic world.
Traces of matrilinearity can be found in NW Spain and Portugal as well as on some Greek islands, most probably as a dissociative reaction in front of aristocratic customs.

[Black Wolf]

I read that it exists in some Balkan countries, and was one of the reasons for the rape of women during the Yugoslav wars. Ethnicity was regarded as patrilineal, so children born to the raped women would inherent their rapist father's ethnicity.

And I believe among Jews ethnicity is matrilineal.

Among Jews religion is usually inherited matrilineally however religion is not really the same thing as ethnicity although when it comes to Jews religion and ethnicity seem to be strongly linked.

[Kiyant]

In my culture it is always looked what the father is.
If the father is an Ahiska then the child is fully Ahiska (even if he is half French/Russian/German or whatever)
If the mother is an Ahiska the child is considered what the father is (but its not like he isnt accepted as an Ahiska)

[Black Wolf]

Contrary to almost all cultures on planet Earth, European nations are as a whole bilinear and bilocal.
An explicit preference for the father side exists in noble lineages though (an innovation introduced by the Frankish Salic Law).
Slavic, Baltic and Magyar cultures have a slight bias in favour of patrilinearity (Finland and Italy to some extent too), but nowhere near to the extreme degree of patrilinearity that is prevalent in China, India or the Islamo-Arabic world.
Traces of matrilinearity can be found in NW Spain and Portugal as well as on some Greek islands, most probably as a dissociative reaction in front of aristocratic customs.

Some scholars think that the Basques at some point in time were also matrilineal or had some matrilineal features in their society.

[aimar]

Both, but I think the mother's family is usually more central in kids life, specially after a divorce.
Kids get both their father's and mother's name here, I used to think that was the norm in the rest of Europe, but I think it only happens in Portugal and Spain

[Ouistreham]

Some scholars think that the Basques at some point in time were also matrilineal or had some matrilineal features in their society.

Quite right.
The Basque family structure used to be a case of bilinearity whithin a stem-family system.
In the latter, the privileged heir (for lots of technical reasons), the one who inherits most or all of the property and has authority on the other siblings, is almost always the eldest male. The Basque originality is that very often the privileged heir could be a girl if she happened to be the first born.
In such a case the eldest daughter would use her younger brothers as employees, she would marry and transmit her surname to her children, and since Basque family names are generally estate names we would be in front of a perfect matrilineal succession.

Kids get both their father's and mother's name here, I used to think that was the norm in the rest of Europe, but I think it only happens in Portugal and Spain

Yep. Possibly related to the above.

[Empecinado]

Some scholars think that the Basques at some point in time were also matrilineal or had some matrilineal features in their society.

All Iberians especially in the north had matrilineal features, but Basques are the ones who have preserved better it. Even monarchical succession in the Asturian monarchy was done under a matrilineal structure: wife transmitted hereditary rights to husband and not the other way around.

[Black Wolf]

Quite right.
The Basque family structure used to be a case of bilinearity whithin a stem-family system.
In the latter, the privileged heir (for lots of technical reasons), the one who inherits most or all of the property and has authority on the other siblings, is almost always the eldest male. The Basque originality is that very often the privileged heir could be a girl if she happened to be the first born.
In such a case the eldest daughter would use her younger brothers as employees, she would marry and transmit her surname to her children, and since Basque family names are generally estate names we would be in front of a perfect matrilineal succession.


Yep. Possibly related to the above.

Now there are a few societies or ethnic groups in Europe today who preserved tribal structures and clan systems such as the Ghegs of Northern Albania and Montenegrins and some Serbs in Montenegro. These groups were and are patrilineal. Do you think that most of Europe would have been like these peoples 1500 years ago or so?