Changes

==Description==

==Description==

A '''secret society''' is a club or [[organization]] whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The [[society]] may or may not attempt to conceal its [[existence]]. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_agencies intelligence agencies], or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their activities and memberships but maintain a [[public]] [[presence]]. The exact qualifications for labeling a group as a ''secret society'' are disputed, but [[definitions]] generally rely on the degree to which the organization insists on [[secrecy]], and might involve the retention and transmission of secret [[knowledge]], denial of membership in or knowledge of the [[group]], the [[creation]] of personal [[bonds]] between members of the organization, and the use of secret rites or [[rituals]] which solidify members of the [[group]].

A '''secret society''' is a club or [[organization]] whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The [[society]] may or may not attempt to conceal its [[existence]]. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_agencies intelligence agencies], or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their activities and memberships but maintain a [[public]] [[presence]]. The exact qualifications for labeling a group as a ''secret society'' are disputed, but [[definitions]] generally rely on the degree to which the organization insists on [[secrecy]], and might involve the retention and transmission of secret [[knowledge]], denial of membership in or knowledge of the [[group]], the [[creation]] of personal [[bonds]] between members of the organization, and the use of secret rites or [[rituals]] which solidify members of the [[group]].

 

[[Anthropology|Anthropologically]] and historically, ''secret societies'' are deeply interlinked with the concept of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannerbund Mannerbund], the all-male "[[warrior]]-band" or "warrior-society" of pre-modern [[cultures]] (see H. Schurtz, ''Alterklassen und Mannerbunde'', Berlin, 1902; A. Van Gennep, ''The Rites of Passage'', Chicago, 1960).

[[Anthropology|Anthropologically]] and historically, ''secret societies'' are deeply interlinked with the concept of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannerbund Mannerbund], the all-male "[[warrior]]-band" or "warrior-society" of pre-modern [[cultures]] (see H. Schurtz, ''Alterklassen und Mannerbunde'', Berlin, 1902; A. Van Gennep, ''The Rites of Passage'', Chicago, 1960).