Adelphopoiesis, or adelphopoiia from the Greek ἀδελφοποίησις, derived from ἀδελφός (adelphos) "brother" and ποιέω (poieō) "I make", literally "brother-making" is a ceremony practiced at one time by various Christian churches to unite together two people of the same sex (normally men). Similar blood brotherhood rituals were practiced by other cultures, including American Indians, ancient Chinese as well as Germanic and Scandinavian peoples. It was argued by the late gay activistJohn Boswell in his book Same-sex unions in pre-modern Europe, also published as The marriage of likeness, that the practice was to unite two persons in a marriage-like union. This is contradicted by the Greek Orthodox Church where the practice is translated as "fraternization" and makes no mention or suggestion of anything sexual. The ceremony was mainly practised in Eastern Christianity. Boswell gives text and translation for a number of versions of the "fraternization" ceremony in Greek, and translation only for a number of Slavonic versions (Bratotvorenie).