Matrilineality is a system in which descent is traced through the mother and maternal ancestors. Matrilineality is also a societal system in which one belongs to one's matriline or mother's lineage, which can involve the inheritance of property and/or titles.

A matriline is a line of descent from a female ancestor to a descendant (of either sex) in which the individuals in all intervening generations are mothers – a mother line. In a matrilineal descent system an individual is considered to belong to the same descent group as her or his mother. This matrilineal descent pattern is in contrast to the more common pattern of patrilineal descent from which a Family name is usually derived.

The matriline of historical nobility was also called her or his enatic or uterine ancestry, corresponding to the patrilineal agnatic ancestry treated in depth in the article Patrilineality.

In some ancient cultures, membership in their groups was (and still is if in bold) inherited matrilineally. Example cultures or societies include the Cherokee, Choctaw, Gitksan, Haida, Hopi, Iroquois, Lenape, Navajo, and Tlingit of North America; the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, Indonesia; the Nairs of Kerala and the Bunts of Karnataka in south India; the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo of Meghalaya in northeast India; the Mosuo of China; the Basques of Spain and France; the Akan including the Ashanti of west Africa; and the Tuaregs of west and north Africa. Some of these examples are discussed in this article, see Contents below.

Joel Roth is a prominent American rabbi in the Rabbinical Assembly, which is the rabbinical body of Conservative Judaism. He is a former member and chair of the assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) which deals with questions of Jewish law and tradition, and serves as the Louis Finkelstein Professor of Talmud and Jewish Law at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTSA or JTS) in New York City, where he formerly served as dean of the Rabbinical School. He is also Rosh Yeshiva (head of school) of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel. Recently, in 2006, Rabbi Roth took over as chair of the Hebrew Language department at JTS. Rabbi Roth is a well-known teacher of Hebrew grammar. He is a vociferous proponent of the existence of the "sheva merakhef" (the hovering schwa),^{[citation needed]} which may be defined as the second of what would have been two consecutive sheva'im na'im in the first two letters of a word.

Roth is Louis Finkelstein Professor of Talmud and Jewish Law at the JTS. Rabbi Roth also serves as Rosh Yeshiva of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. The Yeshiva, founded and maintained by the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, is under the academic auspices of JTS.

Hazzan Abraham “Abe” Lubin (born 1937) is a London-born American Conservative Jewish Hazzan and former President of the Cantors Assembly, who currently serves at Congregation Beth El in Bethesda, Maryland.

Abraham Lubin was born in London in 1937. As a child, he returned with his parents to Israel, their birthplace. In 1950, his family returned to England, where he continued his education at the Etz Chaim Yeshivah in London and then the London School of Jewish Studies (then called Jews' College) Cantorial School, where he graduated as a Hazzan. He also received the Associate of the London College of Music Diploma (A.L.C.M.) from the London College of Music, a Bachelor of Music degree from the College Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, a Master of Music degree from DePaul University, and a Doctor of Music degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Hazzan Lubin and his wife, Sandy, now live in Bethesda, Maryland. They are the parents of Dr. Harlan Lubin, Stephanie Lubin, and Sharyn Lubin Levitt, and the grandparents of eight grandchildren.

Danny Siegel is an American author, lecturer, and poet who has spoken in more than 500 North American communities, to communal organizations, synagogues, JCC's, Federations, on Tzedakah and Jewish values. "Tzedakah" is loosely translated as 'charity' or 'charitable giving', though a better translation is 'righteous giving'

Siegel is often referred to as "The World's Greatest Expert on Microphilanthropy", "The Feeling Person's Thinker", and "The Pied Piper of Tzedakah", and most recently as "A Pioneer Of Tzedakah" by the New York Jewish Week editor and publisher, Gary Rosenblatt.

Danny Siegel founded the Ziv Tzedakah Fund in 1981 after making several trips to Israel carrying money to be distributed to those in need. Jewish tradition teaches that anyone on a mission of good deeds will be saved from harm, and so, on each trip, Danny followed this age-old custom and asked friends and relatives for a dollar or two to give away to Tzedakah upon his arrival in the Holy Land.

Once in Israel, Danny went in search of "the Good People" (he refers to them as "Mitzvah Heroes"), ordinary Israelis who were doing extraordinary work, by simply in trying to make the world a better place. Within a short time, he learned of the efforts of such people as Hadassah Levi, who made her life's work the rescue of abandoned Down Syndrome babies from hospitals, Myriam Mendilow, who found Jerusalem's poor, elderly residents on the streets of the city and gave them respect and new purpose in her program, Yad L'Kashish (Lifeline for the Old), or Uri Lupolianski, a young teacher who started Israel's now famous lending program, Yad Sarah, in his living room.

Vincent Desiderio (born 1955) is an American realist painter. He is currently the senior critic at the New York Academy of Art. He lives in Sleepy Hollow, New York, and works in Sleepy Hollow.

Desiderio was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Desiderio received a BA in fine art and art history from Haverford College in 1977. He subsequently studied for one year at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy (77-78), and for four years at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1979 and 1983. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited widely, most recently in solo exhibitions at the Marlborough Gallery in New York.

He is a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, two National Endowment for the Arts Grants, the Everson Museum of Art Purchase Prize, a Rome Grant from the Creative Artists Network and a Cresson Traveling Scholarship from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1996, he became the first American artist to receive the International Contemporary Art Prize awarded by the Prince Ranier Foundation of the Principality of Monaco.