Descent group plays a vital role in the community

Descent group composed of relatives, all of whom traces their relationship through consanguineal (blood) or affinal (marriage) relations to an actual, commonly known ancestor (Scupin & DeCorse, 2020). Descent group plays a vital role in the community. I will focus only on four main functions and will give a specific example of each function. The first function is to allow the transfer of property for the current generation to the next generation. A community usually will be facing the problem of who is the person will be heir their ancestor’s property but, in many communities, the oldest generation will directly pass their property to the same descent group. For instance, in the Bidayuh community, they generally live in the longhouse to organize their domestic life, and the Bidayuh (turun) will take over the land property from their ancestor. Blood relationship is the most important factor that allows transferring the land property because when they pass their property according to the descent group, they can preserve their culture well. To carry out religious ritual is one of the functions of the descent group. Some religious ceremonies can perform to be certain people only in a community. Bilek is the house for the Iban people to stay. Every Bilek (tuai rumah) consists of one leader to rule the customary law, and a religious specialist (tuai burong) will be in charge of the ritual’s ceremony. The leader should be chosen based on the Iban descent group. Besides that, provides economic substance is also the function of the descent group. When living in the same descent group, it easy to get the economic substance. In the Melanau community, harvesting and hunting, combined with the agriculture of the sago garden, are the ways to provides economic substance. Divisions of labor in the same descent group can help the community easy to obtain industrial supply different people perform different duties in the descent group. The last function for the descent group is to prohibiting marriage in close cousins. In many communities, marriage to the close cousin or the same descent group is an insect taboo; this may cause gene mutation. When the person knows about their descent group, it can prevent them from marrying the close cousin. For example, a native customary law is set in the Dusun community to prohibiting marriage between close relatives. Without a decent group, society may not recognize their relatives, so descent groups seem a very important system to persist in all society.