Mq Ma belongs to the earliest stratum of Akha ancestors named in the genealogical tradition. She is one of the primal forebears whom several contemporary Akha and Hani scholars in China have reinterpreted as a maternal ancestor, arguing that the strictly patrilineal recitation preserved into the present overlies an older matrifiliative order. The claim is contested, and sources differ on whether the primal ancestors were reckoned through mothers or fathers, but Mq Ma stands in the record as a named apical forebear near the origin of the line.