Final answer:
While U.S. society has some patrilineal aspects, like children often taking their father's surname, the kinship system is largely bilateral, tracing ancestry through both parents.
Step-by-step explanation:
In American society, children do often share a last name with their father, which suggests a patrilineal kinship system. However, U.S. society assumes some aspects of patrilineal descent, not a strict patrilineal system. In fact, the kinship system in the United States is generally bilateral, meaning that ancestry is traced through both the mother's and father's lines. While in patrilineal societies such as those in rural China and India, only males carry on the family surname, which is not exclusively the case in the US. Moreover, in matrilineal societies like those of the Cherokee tribes, descent is traced through the mother's side. In ambilineal societies, descent can be traced through either parent, depending on various factors.