Talk:Phratry

Conflation of two concepts
This page combines two distinct concepts:

1. The phratria of ancient Greece, which began as a kinship group that cross-cut tribe (phyle) affiliation,

and 2. the anthropological kinship term phratry which is based loosely on the Greek usage.

I would fix this, but I don't know how.

Also, the Ancient Greek kinship system and societal organization should be part of or linked to some other page, perhaps the Social Structure section of Ancient Greece.

Mellsworthy (talk) 07:28, 4 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Have tried to address this, but I'm not familiar with the scholarship. What you say about the phratry cutting across phyle affiliation is vexing, since the article says otherwise. Will try to do a quick and superficial fix of that next. Cynwolfe (talk) 12:54, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

Uncited material in need of citations
I am moving the following uncited material, which had been tagged for almost 13 years, to this talk page until it can be properly supported with inline citations of reliable, secondary sources, per WP:V, WP:NOR, WP:CS, WP:NOR, WP:IRS, WP:PSTS, et al. This diff shows where it was in the article. Nightscream (talk) 17:19, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

Anthropology
In anthropology, the Greek term is used to describe a unilineal descent group composed of a number of supposedly related clans which each retain their separate identities, but each feels some sort of special identity to the others within its phratry. A phratry may be formed when a clan grows so large that it splits up without losing their original (identity) connection.

Among Native Americans, a phratry is often identified by a nature sign. In some cultures, such as the Tlingit, and the Lenape, intermarriage between phratries was mandated.

Traditionally, the social organisation of Marind-anim, a tribal group in southern Irian in the island of New Guinea, is based on exogamic phratries (Marind term boan).