Chinese lineage associations, also kinship or ancestral associations (Chinese: 宗族社会; pinyin: zōngzú shèhuì or Chinese: 宗族协会; pinyin: zōngzú xiéhuì), are a type of social relationship institutions found in Han Chinese ethnic groups and the fundamental unit of Chinese ancestral religion. They gather people who share the same surname belonging to the same kin, who often have the same geographical origin (ancestral home), and therefore the same patron deities. They aren't seen as distinct from the Chinese kin itself, but rather as its corporate form. These institutions and their corporeal manifestations are also known as lineage churches or kinship churches (宗族堂 zōngzú táng), or, mostly on the scholarly level, as Confucian churches, although this term has principally other different meanings.