Sorority
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sorority".

Look up fraternity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Fraternity is a word for brotherhood, the term usually implies some level of distinct organization. A kind of club. For women the word is sorority.

Fraternities can be organized for a virtually endless variety of purposes. The only true distinction between a fraternity and any other form of social organization is the implication that the members freely associate as equals for a mutually beneficial purpose, (rather than because of a religous, governmental, commercial, or familial bond, although there are fraternities dedicated to each of these topics).

The ability to organize freely apart from the institutions of government and religion were a fundamental part of the establishment of the modern world. In Living the Enlightenment, Margaret C. Jacobs showed the development of Jurgen Habermas' 'public space' in 17th century Netherlands was closely related to the establishment of lodges of Freemasons.^[1]

History

There are known fraternal organizations which existed as far back as ancient Greece and Rome, and analogous institutions called confraternities which existed allied to the Catholic Church in the late medieval period.

The development of Freemasonry in the early 1700's became a critical watershed moment in fraternal organization, and there have been hundreds of varieties of Freemasonry, and thousands of closely parallel organizations since then. Virtually any fraternal organizations today bear some debt to the models of organization first worked out in Masonic lodges.

The development was especially dynamic in America, where the freedom to associate outside governmental regulation is expressly sanctioned in law. There have been hundreds of fraternal organizations in America alone, and at the turn of the last century, there were enough memberships for every adult male, (because of multiple memberships, probably only 50% of adult males belonged to any organizations).^[2] Arthur M. Schlesinger coined the term 'a nation of joiners' to refer to the phenomenon in October 1944. ^[3] Schlesinger in turn referred to de Tocqueville's commentary on American reliance on private organization dating back to the 1830's.

There are many attributes that fraternities can have, or not depending on their structure and purpose. Fraternities can have differing degrees of secrecy, some form of initiation or ceremony marking admission, formal codes of behavior, disciplinary procedures, very differing amounts of real property and assets.

College and university fraternities

Fraternities have a long history in colleges and universities, and form a major component of the whole range of fraternities. In Europe, students have been organized in nations and corporations since the beginnings of the modern university in the late medieval period, but the situation can differ greatly by nation. In the United States, fraternities in colleges date to the 1820's, but did not fully assume an established pattern until the 1840's. They were strongly influenced by the patterns set by Freemasonry.

Fraternities, general

• Fraternal and service organizations.

e.g. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Columbus or Freemasonry.

• secret societies.
• chivalric orders.
• benefit societies, mutual aid societies, Friendly societies.
• social clubs.
• trade unions.

e.g. Knights of Labor.

Fraternity, for students in colleges and universities

• North America
  • Student organizations in North America (fraternities and sororities)‎, also called social fraternities, initiatory organizations which unite students through the undergraduate college course. See also:List of student organizations in North America (fraternities and sororities)‎.
  • Honor societies, organizations which recognize achievement.
  • Class societies, organizations in which membership is limited by year of study.
  • Literary societies, organizations formed as a student-directed supplement to the academic curriculum.
  • Professional fraternities, organizations which promote fellowship among those in a particular academic discipline or career field.
  • Service fraternities and sororities, organizations whose primary purpose is community service.
  • informally, a fraternity or sorority house, large group housing for members of a fraternity or sorority.
• Student corporations in Austria.
• Student corporations in England.
• Student corporations in Estonia.
• Osakunta in Finland.
• Bureau des élèves in France.
• Student organizations in Germany (Studentenverbindung)‎.
• Ordine goliardico in Italy.
• Student corporations in Latvia.
• Studentenverenigingen in the Netherlands.
• Student corporations in Poland.
• Student corporations in Spain.
• Student organizations in Sweden (nationer)‎.
• Student organizations in the Philippines (fraternities)‎.
• Sudent organizations in Puerto Rico (fraternities and sororities)‎.

Music

• Fraternity (band), an Australian rock group from the early 1970s, featuring AC/DC's Bon Scott
• Fraternity Records, a record label

Film

• Fraternity of Assassins is a fictional secret society in the 2008 action film Wanted.

Other

• A bachelor band, in zoology or working with animals

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.