Matrilineal descent is typically difficult for americans to grasp because it feels so unnatural to us. what explains this feeling that matrilineal descent is unnatural since as americans we also recognize that we are descended from one mother and her parents? we usually get our surnames from our father, giving our kinship system a patrilineal bias although women can now own property, be breadwinner and head of a household, and can earn more than a husband, many americans still think of the ideal family as centered on the father all of the above our kinship system is bilateral, recognizing descent through both mother and father, so it seems strange to recognize only one of these lines