In a wide array of lineage-based societies with a classificatory kinship system, potential spouses are sought from a specific class of relative as determined by a prescriptive marriage rule. This rule may be expressed by anthropologists using a « descriptive » kinship term, such as a « man’s mother’s brother’s daughter » (also known as a « cross-cousin »). Such descriptive rules mask the participant’s perspective: a man should marry a woman from his mother’s lineage. Within the society’s kinship terminology, such relatives are usually indicated by a specific term which sets them apart as potentially marriageable.

Pierre Bourdieu notes, however, that very few marriages ever follow the rule, and that when they do so, it is for « practical kinship » reasons such as the preservation of family property, rather than the « official kinship » ideology.In a wide array of lineage-based societies with a classificatory kinship system, potential spouses are sought from a specific class of relative as determined by a prescriptive marriage rule. This rule may be expressed by anthropologists using a « descriptive » kinship term, such as a « man’s mother’s brother’s daughter » (also known as a « cross-cousin »).

Such descriptive rules mask the participant’s perspective: a man should marry a woman from his mother’s lineage. Within the society’s kinship terminology, such relatives are usually indicated by a specific term which sets them apart as potentially marriageable. Pierre Bourdieu notes, however, that very few marriages ever follow the rule, and that when they do so, it is for « practical kinship » reasons such as the preservation of family property, rather than the « official kinship » ideology.