noun
- A social group or subdivision of a tribe, especially in ancient Greece, consisting of several families claiming descent from a common ancestor.
Usage: anthropology; history
Examples
- In ancient Athens, citizens belonged to a phratry, which served important religious and social functions.
- The phratry was an intermediate social unit between the family and the larger tribe.
- Members of the same phratry often shared religious rituals and obligations.
- The phratry system helped organize Greek society during the classical period.
- Anthropologists study the phratry structure to understand kinship patterns in ancient civilizations.