sworn brotherhood
Ritualized male bonding
Sworn brotherhood is a bond between individuals who have made formal vows of loyalty and mutual support, creating a relationship as binding as blood kinship.
The practice appears across cultures—medieval European knights, Chinese sworn brothers, blood brothers in various traditions.
The vows typically commit each party to defend the other's interests and honor: They entered into sworn brotherhood on the battlefield.
The term can describe both the relationship itself and the group of people bound by such vows.
- bloodBody's oxygen carrier
- blood oathVow sealed by bloodshed
- oathFormal binding promise
- loyaltyFaithful commitment to another
- vowSolemn personal commitment
allegiance · bond · pact · ritual · rite of passage · honor · sacred · pledge · fealty · comrades · knife · warriors · trust · binding · ceremony · secret society · scar · eternal
- Yakuzayakuza, full body tattoo, syndicate, syndicate boss, crime family
- diplomacyembassy, ambassador, ambassadors, treaty, treaties
sworn brotherhoodblood relation
Person sharing your ancestry
birth family · consanguinity · family of origin · strangers · marriage
sworn brotherhoodblood feud
Inherited cycle of retribution
bitter rivalry · vendetta · arch-nemesis · betrayal · antagonism
sworn brotherhoodestrangement
Emotional separation between people
alienation · social isolation · atomization · detachment · disconnection
sworn, brotherhood, swearing, swore, brother, brothers, brotherly, brotherhoods, brethren