Sorority Rituals - Reflections On Rites of ... - Mari Ann Callais

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They see the ritual ceremony as something that assists them in becoming not just friends but, in their terms, “sisters”: Before you go through initiation, you can be really good friends with the girls . . . but until you go through that ceremony, you are not really sisters with them. You really bond to that point so that you do feel like sisters and you understand why it is done this way. It brings you closer to those people and it helps you to understand why you are all together. Roy Rappaport (1979) stated: In many rituals strong emotions are engendered and consciousness altered. Not infrequently there is a feeling of ‘loss of self’ – that is, a loss of the sense of separation – and a feeling of union with the other members of the congregation (p. 138). This coming together of the whole reinforces that the bonding between sorority members and the feeling of union can last beyond the ceremony itself. Other participants seem to have no doubt that they are “bonding” to one another because the ritual ceremony serves to remind them of the purpose of their organization: Ritual is to remind people on an annual basis why they are there. After initiation, people seem to be a lot closer because they remember why they joined their sorority and why we do this even though people complain about the ceremony taking forever . . . they still remember why they joined the sorority. The participants made a number of references about ritual giving a deeper meaning to the sorority: “I think ritual is beautiful . . . it is something that binds us and has a deeper meaning than what you see on the surface.” The “hidden or secret” concept of ritual, according the participants, is part of the bonding experience they share through the ritual ceremony: Ritual is to reveal the secrets of your sorority and only you and your sisters know those secrets. Ritual is what bonds you to one another and to the sorority because all of a sudden your eyes are just opened to absolutely everything about your sorority and nothing is secret anymore. You finally feel like you are sisters with those people. 96
One of the participants explained why ritual is “secret”: Ritual is there to bond us together and it is not anything to be afraid of. It is secret because it is something that we have as a sorority, which bonds us together. It is not because we are doing something bad that we have to hide from the outside world, it is just something special that we share between us as sisters and it enhances our bond to one another. Some participants explained ritual as a bonding experience because they perceived that ritual created continuity beyond their personal experience: If we didn’t have ritual, we wouldn’t keep ongoing relationships with sisters because there would be no continuity and there would be nothing that would be passed down. You can only pass friendships so far, but ritual is that stuff that sororities were founded on and that is what makes the difference. Several participants also mentioned ritual as bonding them to other women who are members of their sorority but who are members at another chapter or even older women who are no longer undergraduate members: “Ritual is what connects different generations and different chapters.” An additional comment was made that acknowledged this as well: Ritual is a secret that you share with one common bond. Everybody in our chapter is different, but when we do the ritual ceremony, it brings us all together. Even if you are young or old, you could even be an 80-year old member of our sorority and we all know the same thing and that is our ritual. The theme of “connection” continued to surface as the participants described their perception of the meaning of ritual: Ritual is to make a connection and to realize that we share something that most people will never understand . . . you realize that ritual is the only thing that every single chapter of your national organization has in common are your ritual ceremonies. 97
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SORORITY RITUALS: RITES OF PASSAGE
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am very grateful
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for teaching me that a group of peo
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TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ......
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CHAPTER V: SUMMARY, DISCUSSION, REC
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Each year th
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The member groups of the National P
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hopes of the founders rather than t
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ceremony is complete, that person i
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80,000 women join sororities. On mo
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issues, and topics …that formerly
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when do we use it? How do we use it
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the sorority experience has on the
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The lack of information concerning
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of the NPC member groups, and to co
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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Thi
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Ritual Ceremonies and Symbolism in
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Robson writes further: In a world c
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strengthened by encountering differ
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student initiated and created to au
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Gradually, however, they took over
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Following the founding of Kappa Alp
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efer to themselves as "service" org
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Alpha Xi Delta Fraternity Lombard C
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What Is Ritual? In order to explain
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theorist/researcher in the area of
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Ritual as a Rite of Passage Underst
Page 55 and 56: we are and giving meaning to us wit
Page 57 and 58: am I? Well, as I see it, I am a per
Page 59 and 60: Value Congruence Research conducted
Page 61 and 62: the majority of authors . . . have
Page 63 and 64: To better understand Gilligan’s F
Page 65 and 66: only women, all with varying opinio
Page 67 and 68: member transitions to a leader/role
Page 69 and 70: development. The isolation period a
Page 71 and 72: Gilligan’s point that sex differe
Page 73 and 74: undergraduate members. Understandin
Page 75 and 76: not an option. Actual observance of
Page 77 and 78: Role of the NPC Research Committee
Page 79 and 80: the chapters were part of large nat
Page 81 and 82: where I was able to travel based up
Page 83 and 84: a whole. I piloted the interview qu
Page 85 and 86: These categories were reflective of
Page 87 and 88: participated in my sorority ritual,
Page 89 and 90: sorority women was a cognitive asse
Page 91 and 92: In addition, only one participant w
Page 93 and 94: school. Sixteen (31%) sophomore par
Page 95 and 96: itual among themselves outside of t
Page 97 and 98: was founded in 1978. Their average
Page 99 and 100: chapters ranging in size from 150 t
Page 101 and 102: participants’ feelings about the
Page 103 and 104: A few of the participants expressed
Page 105: Several of the participants related
Page 109 and 110: During new member education, you le
Page 111 and 112: Women’s Development within the So
Page 113 and 114: Comments from several of the partic
Page 115 and 116: When I first joined my sorority, I
Page 117 and 118: the participants referred to other
Page 119 and 120: I think that ritual has made me a b
Page 121 and 122: The reasons that the participants g
Page 123 and 124: This study included both private an
Page 125 and 126: internal value system or they know
Page 127 and 128: sorority women’s length of member
Page 129 and 130: when an 18-year old woman joins a s
Page 131 and 132: ehavior of sorority women, it must
Page 133 and 134: * The level of responsibility and /
Page 135 and 136: to evaluate sorority women and the
Page 137 and 138: they are and what role ritual has i
Page 139 and 140: numbers vary from chapter to chapte
Page 141 and 142: that those ceremonies can bring to
Page 143 and 144: Butler, E. R. (1990). Initiations r
Page 145 and 146: Kuh, G. D., & Arnold, J. C. (1992).
Page 147 and 148: Pennington, D., Zvonkovic, A. C., W
Page 149 and 150: Taylor, S.E., Peplau, L.A., C Sears
Page 151 and 152: APPENDIX A CONSENT FORM 141
Page 153 and 154: APPENDIX B PROFILE QUESTIONS 143
Page 155 and 156: APPENDIX C INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 145
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general? What would you say that th
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APPENDIX D (LETTER TO THE GREEK ADV
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APPENDIX E NATIONAL PANHELLENIC CON
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six months doing literature researc
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common knowledge similarities--the
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Correspondence II To: Shelia Barnes
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I truly appreciate your guidance an
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Application for Exemption from IRB
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VITA Mari Ann Callais was born in 1
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