descent

In anthropology, the tracing of an individual's ancestry in the male line only (patrilineally), in the female line only (matrilineally), or through both males and females. Descent may be traced for various purposes, most commonly in order to regulate inheritance, or succession to office, or to define rights to the membership of groups. Some social groups may be defined by common descent. Anthropologists call such groups lineages or clans.

Descent may refer to:

Science and mathematics Descent (aircraft), the decrease of an aircraft in altitude during flight Descent (category theory) in mathematics Kinship and descent in anthropology Common descent in biology Technology The distance that a typeface descends below the baseline in typography Media Descent (computer game), a series of computer games developed by Parallax Software and later Outrage Entertainment in the mid-to-late-1990s Descent: FreeSpace, a computer game series developed by Volition Inc., a successor of Parallax Software. Descent (film), a made-for-tv movie by the Sci Fi Channel Descent (novel), first novel (2004) of Sabrina Broadbent, a thinly veiled account of her marriage to Michael Winterbottom Descent (Stargate SG-1), season 6 episode 3 of Stargate SG-1 Descent (TNG episode), a two-part episode (sixth-season finale and seventh-season opener) of Star Trek: The Next Generation Descent: Journeys in the Dark, a board game released by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005 The Descent, a horror film

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