Fraternity

A fraternity (Latin frater : "brother") is a brotherhood, though the term usually connotes a distinct or formal organization. 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 religious, governmental, commercial, or familial bond, although there are fraternities dedicated to each of these topics.

In many instances they are limited to male membership but that is not always the case, and there are mixed male and female, and even wholly female, fraternities.

Fraternities can be organized for many purposes, including university education, work skills, ethics, ethnicity, religion, politics, charity, chivalry, other standards of personal conduct, asceticism, service, or performing arts.

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

There are many attributes that fraternities may or may not have, 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 and disciplinary procedures.