Information About ™Heir |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT INHERITANCE | |
| inheritance | |
| wills and trustsinheritance | |
| wills and trusts | |
| law | |
| kinship and descent | |
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Inheritance is the practice of passing on Property , Title s, Debt s, and Obligation s upon the death of an individual. It has long played an extremely important role in human societies. Both Anthropology and Sociology have made detailed studies in this area. Many cultures feature Patrilineal succession, also known as Gavelkind , where only male children can inherit. Some cultures also employ Matrilineal succession only passing property along the female line. Even more radical than the patrilineal succession is the practice of Primogeniture , under which all property goes to the eldest child, or often the eldest son (the first-born). Conversely there are also systems where everything is left to the youngest child. Some ancient societies and most modern states employ Partible Inheritance , under which every child inherits (usually equally). There was also mixed systems:
Many states have Inheritance Tax es, under which a portion of any estate goes to the Government , though the government technically is not an heir. Employing differing forms of succession can effect many areas of society. Gender roles are profoundly affected by inheritance laws and traditions. Primogeniture has the effect of keeping large estates united and thus perpetuating an elite. With partible inheritance large estates are slowly divided among many descendants and great wealth is thus diluted, leaving higher opportunities to individuals to make a success. (If great wealth is not diluted, the positions in society tend to be much more fixed and opportunities to make an individual success are lower.) Inheritance can be organized in a way that its use is restricted by the desires of someone (usually of the decedent). An inheritance may have been organized as a fideicommission, which usually cannot be sold or diminished, only its profits are disposable. A fideicommission's succession can also be ordered in a way that determines it long (or eternally) also with regard to persons born long after the original decedent. Cf also Trust . Royal Succession has typically been more or less a fideicommission, the realm not (easily) to be sold and the rules of succession not to be (easily) altered by a holder (a monarch). In more Archaic days, particularly the possession of inherited Land has been much more like a family trust than a property of an individual. Yet quite recently in many European countries, sale of the whole of or a significant portion of a farm required consent from certain heirs, and/or heirs had the intervening right to obtain the land in question with same sales conditions as in the sales agreement in question. In . There is a further concept of jointly inheriting, pending renounciation by all but one, which is called Coparceny . EXTERNAL LINKS |
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