A phratry ατρία, English translation: "brotherhood", "kinfolk", derived from φρατήρ meaning "brother") was an anthropological term for a kinship division consisting of two or more distinct clans which are considered a single unit, but which retain separate identities within the phratry. In pre-Classical Greece, each tribe (phyle) was divided into phratries. The nature of these phratries is, in the words of one historian, "the darkest problem… (More on Phratry)