phratry
noun
a grouping of clans or other social units within a tribe.
phratries
-
pluralof phratry.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The gentes, phratries and tribes, the members of which now were dispersed all over Attica and completely intermixed, had thus become unavailable as political groups.
From The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels
Even the twelve phratries composing them seem to have had separate seats in the twelve different towns of Cecrops.
From The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels
Thus the Senecas have two phratries, the first comprising gentes one to four, the second gentes five to eight.
From The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels
But every one of these groups was composed of people from different gentes, phratries, and tribes; they included even strangers.
From The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels
In practice, where phratries exist, a man who knows a woman’s phratry name knows whether or not he may marry her.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 2 "Fairbanks, Erastus" to "Fens" by Various
