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

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shouldn’t really be there anyway because it doesn’t mean anything to them. The only reason they are there is so they don’t have to pay a fine. Yet another indicated the physical presence of members at ritual ceremonies, but a distinct absence of understanding the ceremony: I know that there are definitely some people in my chapter that ritual is just not their thing. One of my friends in my sorority has anxiety and she doesn’t do well with certain retreats and things like that and sitting in circles or holding hands and stuff. She can not do it because she gets so nervous and she hates it. The majority of the women in my chapter come to ritual because they have to because the initiation fine is like $500. I doubt they really listen. I have seen coloring books in the initiation. Participants indicated that those members who saw the ritual ceremony as merely a required activity of the sorority did not have a positive impression of ritual: There are some members of my sorority who think that ritual is stupid and don’t want to be there because it takes too long or the room that the ceremony is taking place in is too hot. On several occasions, the participants themselves expressed that ritual was “boring”: I think that ritual is boring. Initiation is not my favorite event because it takes a long time. We have other rituals and I like the ones that are more traditional to my chapter. Rituals are good I guess, but I just think that initiation is boring and no one ever wants to go. You have to sit there for a really long time and read this stuff out of a book and it takes four hours and it is just not the most entertaining thing. Participants who labeled ritual as a “boring” ceremony or as something “that they had to do” indicated a lack of any connection between their sorority experience and their feelings toward ritual. They may have enjoyed their sorority experience because of other aspects, such as social or what they referred to as “sisterhood,” but for those participants, the ritual ceremony was not one of their favorite aspects of their sorority experience. 100
Women’s Development within the Sorority Experience The third major theme revolved around the participants’ perception of their personal development, as well as the development of others who were sharing the sorority experience. The perspective of the participants led to the identification of three components within this theme: (a) sorority women’s length of membership, (b) sorority women’s level of maturity, and (c) sorority women’s level of responsibility within the sorority. Sorority Women’s Length of Membership Many of the participants acknowledged a developmental change in themselves as well as other members during their years in the sorority. Some of the participants indicated that ritual ceremonies became more meaningful to them as the “grew up” in their sorority. The participants indicated that their perception of ritual was better understood as they developed within the sorority. A few of the participants conveyed feelings of disinterest in the ritual ceremonies as they developed either because they no longer felt connected to the sorority in general or because they did not see the relevance of the ritual ceremony in their lives any longer. Several of the women indicated that appreciation of ritual changed from their freshman year: “Through time, you appreciate ritual more every year. As a freshman, you don’t really appreciate it as much as you do as a senior.” Yet another said: When you are a freshman or when you first join the sorority, you appreciate the ritual because it is a beautiful ceremony, but as you get older, you start understanding it. You begin to understand ritual and then you have feelings and emotions about it and the more you understand it, the more you want to learn. Most of the women perceived ritual as something that changed as they grew in their sorority: It took me near the end of my freshman year to begin to ‘get it’. I am a junior and I am still realizing things about ritual and I am like, this is cool, I never realized that before . . . I am still learning every day…I see ritual like a stepping stone or a rite of passage into the 101
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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
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we are and giving meaning to us wit
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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 and 106: Several of the participants related
Page 107 and 108: One of the participants explained w
Page 109: During new member education, you le
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
Page 157 and 158: general? What would you say that th
Page 159 and 160: 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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Sorority Rituals - Reflections On Rites of ... - Mari Ann Callais

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