Levirate

And it is, he says, impossible not to believe that the Levirate—that is, the practice of marrying a dead brother's widow—is derived from polyandry.

It is only a secondary purpose of the levirate that the property of the deceased passes on to the one who is heir to his name, and is probably a later accretion.

The levirate is found in patrilineal societies in which the bride marries into her husband's family while essentially severing her ties with her original family.