Though China once considered all overseas Chinese eligible for citizenship, it switched its criterion in 1954 from bloodline to birthplace.
When Japan ruled Korea from 1905-45, racideologuesguesaidid that the two countries shared the same bloodline.
His father, Aga Khan III, who traced his bloodline to the Prophet Muhammad, was the leader of the Ismailis.
India's soft state encourages the conglomerate form of doing business, whether owned by a bloodline or not.
The main trouble with Germany's citizenship law is that it is based on bloodline, not place of birth, so young "foreigners" (notably Turks) born and brought up in Germany are not granted citizenship automatically but have to apply for it, laboriously.
Finding a way to fix it has become a preoccupation of the Bank of Italy, the central bank.Banca di Roma's bloodline was never promising.
The chairman of LG, a South Korean conglomerate, adopted when his only son died early (he also has two daughters); he took in his brother's son, the better to keep the business in the family.Traditional Confucian notions of the bloodline family still hold sway, as do aspects of primogeniture.
A majority of adopted babies are girls so as to avoid difficulties over inheritance and at ancestral family rites, which are normally carried out by bloodline sons.South Korea's government has long wanted to boost domestic adoption rates.
Though undemocratic, the bloodline was supposed at least to bestow minimal competence.
Many families fiddled with theirs: when, for example, a bloodline came to an end, a non-relative could be written into a genealogical book in return for payment.
The consequence of being in thrall to a bloodline is a weak party that lacks shared policies or common values.
