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A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger religious group. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and principles. The term is occasionally used in a malicious way to suggest the broken-off group follows a more negative path than the original. The historical usage of the term ''sect'' in Christendom has had pejorative connotations, referring to a group or movement with heretical beliefs or practices that deviate from those of groups considered orthodox.〔Wilson, Bryan ''Religion in Sociological Perspective'' 1982, ISBN 0-19-826664-2 Oxford University Press page 89 "In English, it is a term that designates a religiously separated group, but in its historical usage in Christendom it carried a distinctly pejorative connotation. A sect was a movement committed to heretical beliefs and often to ritual acts and practices like isolation that departed from orthodox religious procedures."〕 A sect as used in an Indian context refers to an organized tradition.〔 ==Etymology== The word ''sect'' comes from the Latin noun ''secta'' (a feminine form of a variant past participle of the verb ''sequi'', to follow〔 〕), meaning "a way, road", and figuratively a (prescribed) way, mode, or manner, and hence metonymously, a discipline or school of thought as defined by a set of methods and doctrines. The present gamut of meanings of ''sect'' has been influenced by confusion with the homonymous (but etymologically unrelated) Latin word ''secta'' (the feminine form of the past participle of the verb ''secare'', to cut), as though sects were scissions cast aside from the mainstream religion.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「sect」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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