Sodality:
In social anthropology, a sodality is a non-kin group organized for a specific purpose (economic, cultural, or other), and frequently spanning villages or towns.
Sodalities are often based on common age or gender, with all-male sodalities more common than all-female. One aspect of a sodality is that of a group “representing a certain level of achievement in the society, much like the stages of an undergraduate’s progress through college [university]”.
In the anthropological literature, the Mafia in Sicily has been described as a sodality. Other examples include Maasai war camps, and Crow and Cheyenne military associations, groups that were not much unlike today’s Veterans of Foreign Wars or American Legion. [Wikipedia]
Noted in”The Mystery Of Hohokam Ballcourts,” Alexandra Witze, American Archaeology (Spring 2018, currently print only):
Researchers have also grappled with questions concerning the locations and timing of these ballcourts. Though there is evidence of trade and other interaction between the peoples of Mesoamerica and the greater Southwest, Mesoamerican-style ballcourts appear only in Arizona and the state of Sonora in northern Mexico. [Desert Archaeology Inc. archaeologist Henry] Wallace thinks that the various Southwestern peoples “picked and chose” the Mesoamerican offerings that most appealed to them. “People and leaders will adopt what works for them and benefits society,” he said, and for the Hohokam ballcourts were useful for creating “social institutions and sodalities.”
