Chimane - Kinship, Marriage, and Family

The Chimane do not have a system of clans. Cross-cousin marriage is preferred, and the kinship system is a variant of the Hawaiian type. Sororal polygyny is practiced. The family unit consists of parents, their daughters, and their daughters' husbands and children. Later the nuclear families of the daughters settle neolocally in the vicinity. Even if they move away to more distant places, however, lifelong economic and ritual relationships with the woman's parents are maintained. Property, basically canoes and weapons, is passed from father to son.