In some patriarchal cultures, a nephew was the recipient of his uncle's
inheritance if the latter did not have a successor. A nephew might have more rights of inheritance than the uncle's daughter. However,
in some matrilineal cultures, a mother's brother (the uncle) might be considered the "social father" of the children more than the biological father, who might not even be considered family. In social environments that lacked a stable home or environments such as refugee situations, uncles and fathers would equally be assigned responsibility for their sons and nephews. Among parents, some cultures have assigned equal status in their social status to daughters and nieces. This is, for instance, the case in Indian communities in
Mauritius, and the Thai
Nakhon Phanom Province, where the transfer of cultural knowledge such as weaving was distributed equally among daughters, nieces and nieces-in-law by the Tai So community, and some
Garifuna people that would transmit languages to their nieces. In some proselytizing communities the term
niece was informally extended to include non-related younger female community members as a form of endearment. Among some tribes in Manus Province of Papua New Guinea, women's roles as sisters, daughters and nieces may have taken precedence over their marital status in social importance. ==Additional terms==