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clan
clan A clan is a kin group larger than a household but smaller than a tribe, whose members trace their relationship through only one line of descent, either the father’s or the mother’s.
A clan is a kin group larger than a household but smaller than a tribe, whose members trace their relationship through only one line of descent, either the father’s or the mother’s. Historically, the term first referred in English to Scottish Highland kin groups and later came to be used more generally in ethnology and sociology for this kind of descent-based organization.