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ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cu ...
, a phratry ( grc, φρᾱτρῐ́ᾱ, phrātríā, brotherhood, kinfolk, derived from grc, φρᾱ́τηρ, phrā́tēr, brother, links=no) was a group containing citizens in some city-states. Their existence is known in most Ionian cities and in
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...
and it is thought that they existed elsewhere as well. Almost nothing is known about the functions and responsibilities of phratries outside
Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean ...
(the area around
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...
). Within
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...
, they played a prominent role in social and religious life, particularly in the major festival called the Apatouria. They played an important role in determining eligibility for Athenian citizenship and all citizens (with very few exceptions) and only citizens were enrolled in phratries. Particularly in anthropology, the term is also applied to similar descent groups of multiple clans in other societies.


Ancient Greece

The origins of the phratry in ancient Greece are unknown. It is possible that they are Ionian in origin and that their presence in Athens stems from a known migration from Ionia in the late Mycenaean period. This was the origin explanation favored by many of the classical Athenians, including Aristotle. Some scholars also favor this explanation because phratries are known to have been present in most (but not all) of the Ionian city-states, as was the major phratry festival, the Apatouria. However, almost nothing is known about the functions or prominence of the Apatouria and the phratries in Ionian city-states. It is therefore possible that they functioned differently from the Athenian phratries and perhaps even emerged separately. The linguistic origins of the word "phratry" are quite old and date back to the
Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Du ...
period, thus giving rise to a second origin theory for phratries: that they date back to early antiquity and originated not in Ionia but elsewhere in
Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
. The term "phratry" itself is quite similar to a number of words for "brother" in languages derived from Indo-European which makes it more plausible that institutions named phratries emerged independently in
Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean ...
(where
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...
is) and Ionia. The existence of the Apatouria in both Ionia and Athens complicates the second theory of origin somewhat, but at present scholars are highly uncertain about how phratries actually emerged. What little we do know about phratries from before the 5th century BCE is drawn primarily from
Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
and from Draco's law of homicide, which probably dates to about 620 BCE. Homer mentions phratries numerous times in his works, although never in any detail. However, their casual mention heavily implies that they were well-established by Homer's time. Draco's law of homicide, from Athens, details who can pardon a murderer. First, the immediate family of the murderer's victim has the right to pardon the murderer. If there is no immediate family, the power then passes to the extended family. If the victim also has no extended family, then the power to pardon the murderer passes to members of the victim's phratry. Since there is no further instruction on what happens if the victim was not in a phratry, scholars have generally interpreted this as meaning that, as early as the 7th century BCE, all Athenian citizens were members of a phratry. Draco's law of homicide also states that the ten most aristocratic of the phratry members would be the ones to make the decision, implying that, at this early stage in Athenian history, the phratries were dominated by the aristocratic class. This would reflect the aristocratic dominance of the broader city-state at this time.
Cleisthenes Cleisthenes ( ; grc-gre, Κλεισθένης), or Clisthenes (c. 570c. 508 BC), was an ancient Athenian lawgiver credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing in 508 BC. For these accomplishm ...
undertook a major reorganization of Athenian institutions in 508 BCE. In general, he made Athens more democratic and less aristocratic. It is known that he reorganized and reconstituted the phylai and created the
deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and ear ...
s, two other groups to which all Athenian citizens belonged. Whether or not he reformed the phratries is unknown. One leading scholar in the field, S.D. Lambert, speculates that the phratries were not involved in the military or political life or responsibilities of citizenship and that
Cleisthenes Cleisthenes ( ; grc-gre, Κλεισθένης), or Clisthenes (c. 570c. 508 BC), was an ancient Athenian lawgiver credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing in 508 BC. For these accomplishm ...
only reorganized institutions in those areas. He further speculates that any change that did occur in the phratries was a reaction to the reorganization of other Athenian institutions rather than a reform undertaken directly by Cleisthenes. Phratries likely reached their peak importance in Athens between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE, when we have the most extant records of them. In this time, they played a prominent role in Greek religious and social life. The number of phratries that existed during this period is unknown. The names of nine phratries are known and there are thought to have been at least thirty. There could have been as many as 140 phratries, which, if the case, would match the number of demes. Given scholarly estimates which place the Athenian citizen male population at between 20,000 and 30,000 in the 4th century BCE, this could mean phratries were as large as 1,000 adult males per phratry or as small as 140 adult males per phratry. It is also likely that different phratries were of different size and that phratries split or merged as demographic changes within them required. With very limited exceptions, membership in a phratry was limited to adult male citizens who were descended from adult male citizen members of that phratry. The sole known exceptions were naturalized citizens, who were usually enrolled in a phratry upon gaining Athenian citizenship. Citizenship and membership were main concerns for phratries in this period and surviving texts deal extensively with questions around membership. This is likely because the qualifications for Athenian citizenship were based upon descent from Athenian citizen fathers (and later, also mothers) and phratries were one of only two institutions that kept track of descent (the other being demes). In 451 BCE, Pericles altered the qualifications for citizenship to require a citizen to have two Athenian parents rather than just Athenian citizen fathers. As phratries were the only institutions keeping track of the parentage of females (demes concerned themselves with males only), this law elevated concern with citizenship and membership in phratries. It seems that phratries altered their qualifications for membership to match the new citizenship requirements, but it is likely that the change was phratry-by-phratry rather than an explicit part of the new citizenship law. Phratries became even more concerned with citizenship and parentage during the Peloponnesian War, when widespread migration, military service and premature death heightened the difficulty of record keeping. The biggest cache of surviving documents, the decrees of a phratry called the Demotionodai centered in a town called Decelea in northern Attica, date from this period and almost exclusively discuss membership qualifications and introduction procedures. The biggest, most prominent and most important phratry festival was the Apatouria, a three day festival during the Athenian month of
Pyanepsion The Attic calendar or Athenian calendar is the lunisolar calendar beginning in midsummer with the lunar month of Hekatombaion, in use in ancient Attica, the ancestral territory of the Athenian polis. It is sometimes called the Greek calendar be ...
. This would place the festival during October or November, depending on the year. One of the biggest festivals of the year in Athens, the Apatouria contained many different rituals within it and likely differed somewhat depending on the phratry one was a member of. Among the most important parts of the festival were the gamelia, the meion and the koureion. The gamelia was the process by which a phratry member introduced their new wife to the phratry, who welcomed and accepted her. Although females did not become phratry members, the phratry did have some supervision over the females in the households of adult male phratry members. The gamelia also gained additional importance after Pericles' new citizenship law of 451 BCE as it created a record of the history and qualifications of the wives of citizens and thus the eligibility for citizenship of their offspring. The meion was the ceremony in which phratry members first introduced their male children to the phratry. It is unknown whether the meion took place in every phratry, but there seems to have been no fixed rule as to when a phratry member should submit their child for the meion ceremony. The koureion was the second introduction of the male offspring to the phratry and probably occurred during adolescence. After undergoing the koureion, a male was considered a full member of the phratry. At both the meion and koureion, phratry members would have had the opportunity to object to the induction of the new member if they believed their parentage was insufficient. It is unclear whether the scrutiny procedure that followed was standard for every new member or only undertaken if someone objected. It also seems that the specific procedure of the meion, koureion and scrutiny varied by phratry. There was also an induction ceremony for females, although the details are unknown. It is also unknown whether that was a universal ceremony, or whether it was only undertaken by some phratries or some families. The Demotionodai decrees detail the scrutiny procedure for that phratry in the decades following the
Peloponnesian War The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world. The war remained undecided for a long time until the decisive intervention of ...
. Potential inductees and the person who introduced them for scrutiny would be fined by the phratry if the inductee was deemed to not be eligible for phratry membership. The Demotionodai decrees also state that the scrutiny of a candidate for membership should be publicized in both Athens and Decelea, probably as a result of significant phratry migration from Decelea to Athens during the Peloponnesian War. The phratry was known to operate out of a barber shop in Athens where phratry members congregated. The procedures are also very concerned with the introduction of candidates for phratry membership who do not have parents to vouch for their eligibility. This was likely a major concern of the period due to heavy death brought on both by plague and war and was probably of particular concern for the Demotionodai phratry because of its center in Decelea, a frontier area occupied by
Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referr ...
during the war. The Demotionodai decrees also make clear that there were elected phratry officers, led by an elected patriarch. This would mark a democratic change from the aristocratic phratry leadership as implied in Draco’s law centuries earlier and would mirror democratic changes in broader Athenian society. The decrees also make clear that the phratry had an independent treasury, as there were fines levied on candidates for membership who were refused membership after the scrutiny procedure. It is thought that both the elected leadership and institutional finances were common to other phratries as well and there are records of the phratries themselves acting as lending agents and landlords. The only reliable extant records of citizens without phratry membership also date to around the time of the Peloponnesian War. Citizenship was granted to the
Plataea Plataea or Plataia (; grc, Πλάταια), also Plataeae or Plataiai (; grc, Πλαταιαί), was an ancient city, located in Greece in southeastern Boeotia, south of Thebes.Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. “Plataea.” '' Webst ...
ns in 427 BCE, the Samians in 405/4 BCE and the Heroes of Phyle in 401/0 BCE, but none of these grants included enrollment in a phratry. The Plataeans were enrolled in demes, but the Samians and Heroes of Phyle were not. This suggests that these groups had somewhat limited citizenship, as membership in a phratry and deme were prerequisites to most of the privileges and duties of citizenship. It is unknown whether there were other grants of citizenship to individuals or groups that did not include phratry membership, but it is thought to have been uncommon and there are no other reliable records of citizens, naturalized or not, who were not enrolled in phratries. Around 250 BCE, the extant references to phratries decrease quite a bit. From 250 BCE to 150 BCE the only surviving references to phratries are citizenship grants that enroll new citizens in a phratry, but it is not clear whether that means that phratries were still heavily active. Those same new citizens were also enrolled in phylai, which had been essentially dormant for centuries, although they technically still existed. After 150 BCE, citizenship grants no longer include enrollment in phratries, demes or phylai. Scholars believe that the decline of phratries is related to the decline in importance of Athenian citizenship. As Athens lost both its empire and its independence, the importance of tightly controlling Athenian citizenship and the benefits associated with citizenship heavily decreased. As phratries were tightly linked to eligibility for citizenship and participation in the duties of citizenship, it is thought that they declined as a result. Another related and complementary theory is that citizenship became more tightly linked to military service rather than descent, which had a similar effect on the phratries and their ceremonies of scrutiny and induction.


Anthropology

In
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
, 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 The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...
, intermarriage between phratries was mandated. Traditionally, the social organisation of Marind-anim, a tribal group in southern Irian in the island of
New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...
, is based on exogamic phratries (Marind term ''boan'').


See also

* Baradari (brotherhood), an institution of
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
and
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, similar in meaning and etymology. *
Cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...
*
Fraternity A fraternity (from Latin ''frater'': "brother"; whence, " brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternit ...
*
Indo-European vocabulary The following is a table of many of the most fundamental Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) words and roots, with their cognates in all of the major families of descendants. Notes The following conventions are used: * Cognates are in general giv ...


References

{{reflist, 25em Anthropology Society of ancient Greece Kinship and descent