Editing Matrilineality (section)

==== Tsenacommacah (Powhatan Confederacy) ====
{{Main|Tsenacommacah}}
The [[Powhatan]] and other tribes of the [[Tsenacommacah]], also known as the Powhatan Confederacy, practiced a version of male-preference matrilineal [[Order of succession#Seniority|seniority]], favoring brothers over sisters in the current generation (but allowing sisters to inherit if no brothers remained), but passing to the next generation through the eldest female line. In ''A Map of Virginia'' [[John Smith of Jamestown]] explains:<blockquote>His <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Chief Powhatan]]'s] kingdome descendeth not to his sonnes nor children: but first to his brethren, whereof he hath 3 namely Opitchapan, [[Opechancanough]], and Catataugh; and after their decease to his sisters. First to the eldest sister, then to the rest: and after them to the heires male and female of the eldest sister; but never to the heires of the males.<ref>Smith, John. ''A Map of Virginia.'' Oxford: Joseph Barnes, 1612. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/jamestown-browse?id=J1008 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050404050733/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/jamestown-browse?id=J1008 |date=4 April 2005 }}, also Repr. in ''The Complete Works of John Smith (1580–1631)''. Ed. Philip L. Barbour. Chapel Hill: University Press of Virginia, 1983. Vol. 1, pp. 305–63.</ref></blockquote>