A phratry (Greek φρατρία, brotherhood, kinfolk, derived from φρατήρ - brother, see also frater) is an anthropological term for a kinship division consisting of two or more distinct clans which are considered a single unit, but which retain separate indentities within the phratry. Wikisource has an original article from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica about: Refectory Look up Refectory in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

In pre-Classical Greece, each tribe (phyle) was divided into phratries. The nature of these phratries is, in the words of one historian, "the darkest problem among the [Greek] social institutions."^[1] Little is known about the role they played in Greek social life, but they existed from the Dark Ages until the second century BC; Homer refers to them several times, in passages that appear to describe the social environment of his times.^[2] In Athens, enrollment in a phratry seems to have been the basic requirement for citizenship in the state before the reforms of Cleisthenes in 508 BC. From their peak of prominence in the Dark Ages, when they appear to have been a substantial force in Greek social life, phratries gradually declined in significance throughout the classical period as other groups (such as political parties) gained influence at their cost. There are things that have the name Phyle: A soliological analog of a biological phyla, mentioned in a novel The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson which includes three great tribes. ... The Greek Dark Ages (ca. ... Cleisthenes (also Clisthenes or Kleisthenes) was a noble Athenian of the accursed Alcmeonidate family. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC - 450s BC Events and Trends 509 BC - Foundation of the Roman Republic 508 BC - Office of pontifex maximus created...

Phratries also existed among native Americans, among whom a phratry was often identified by an animal sign. In some cultures, such as the Tlingit, and the Lenape, intermarriage between phratries was mandated. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... The Lenape or Lenni-Lenape (later named Delaware Indians by Europeans) were, in the 1600s, loosely organized bands of Native American people practicing small-scale agriculture to augment a largely mobile hunter-gatherer society in the region around the Delaware River, the lower Hudson River, and western Long Island Sound. ...

Phratries contained smaller kin groups called gene; these appear to have arisen later than phratries, and it appears that not all members of phratries belonged to a genos; membership in these smaller groups may have been limited to elites. On an even smaller level, the basic kinship group of ancient Greek societies was the oikos (household). Genos (plural gene, clan) is the ancient Greek term for small kinship groups which identified themselves as a unit, referred to by a single name. ... An oikos (ancient Greek: οìκος, plural: οìκου) is the ancient Greek equivalent of a household, house, or family. ...

References

• Fine, John V.A. The Ancient Greeks: A critical history (Harvard University Press, 1983) ISBN 0-674-03314-0

Footnotes