Secret society

The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla warfare insurgencies, that hide their activities and memberships but maintain a public presence.

Anthropologically and historically, secret societies have been deeply interlinked with the concept of the Männerbund, the all-male "warrior-band" or "warrior-society" of pre-modern cultures (see H. Schurtz, Alterklassen und Männerbünde, Berlin, 1902; A.

[5] The organization "Opus Dei" (Latin for "Work of God") is portrayed as a "secret society"[6][7][8] of the Catholic Church.

Critics such as the Jesuit Wladimir Ledóchowski sometimes refer to Opus Dei as a Catholic (or Christian or "white") form of Freemasonry.

Confraternities in Nigeria are secret-society-like student groups within higher education, some of which have histories of violence and organized crime.

[32] The only secret society abolished and then legalized is that of The Philomaths,[33] which is now a legitimate academic association founded on a strict selection of its members.

Having played prominent roles in history, they were targeted by the anti-secret society campaigns of the newly established government of the People's Republic of China during the 1950s.

[41][42] Some Christian denominations continue to forbid their members from joining secret societies in the 21st century, such as the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection and Seventh-day Adventists.