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

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next four years. You are no longer a freshman baby anymore, now you are really a college student. Many of the women referenced the freshman and senior years specifically. Several of the sorority women explained ritual and what it meant from the senior year perspective: I think that ritual means different things to different people and that everyone takes something different from it. Ritual is like a poem, you can dig into it as much as you want and find what ever you want from it. A lot of seniors tell me that by the end of your senior year, you have taken so much out of ritual just because you have had so many experiences and that it means more to you than it did as a freshman, sophomore, or junior. You see the seniors get teary eyed when they recite our purpose and you know that these words have meaning to them. It’s because they have had experience when they have dealt with the meaning of those words and they really understand why they are there. The need for ritual and a better understanding of the role of ritual seem to develop as the participants became older and were possibly looking for more from their sorority experience: I think that especially for the older women, ritual means so much to them…for them, the whole sorority is purely based around ritual but for me, there are other aspects of the sorority that are just as equally important. I think that as I get older, ritual will become the most important part of the sorority. One of the younger participants said “I am not really sure what kind of role ritual plays in my life because I have only been a members for one semester, so I don’t know what role it plays yet.” person: Several of the participants indicated that understanding ritual is not the same for every A lot of understanding ritual has to do with as you get older . . . with 110 members, there are 110 different opinions. Last year was my third year in the sorority and I thought ritual was great, but as you look around the room during the ritual ceremony, you see some of the members who are just like let’s get this over with because I have other things that I could be doing. 102
Comments from several of the participants indicated that many of the members of their chapters did not understand ritual, therefore, it may not mean as much to them no matter what age they are or year they are in the chapters: I think that our chapter is split. Ritual for the members who don’t really understand, it is hard for them to apply it to their lives because they just don’t understand. To chapter members who understand ritual like me, you just learn more about yourself and other as time goes on. A few of the sorority women indicated that they felt that they had outgrown the ritual and their sororities in general: As you get older, you just don’t really care about ritual anymore and I think that a lot of the older members feel that way. I have changed through my years…when I first learned about ritual, I saw it as something that I should take through my life, then I stopped listening, it just became something that I had to attend. Now that I am a senior, I get fined if I don’t go to ritual, so I have to be there. Another woman explained that other priorities had taken the place of the sorority experience: When I was a freshman and a sophomore, I did not understand why the seniors were so apathetic towards things. I think that the time between sophomore and senior year, you are just completely older. When I was a freshman, going out was my biggest experience, now my biggest experience is having lived in a foreign country by myself for three months where I didn’t speak the language. Different types of experiences are way more significant and way more difficult to accomplish than pledging a sorority and now I see the sorority and ritual as a little bit more trivial. Another women said that she “really liked ritual her first two years in the sorority, but as a junior and senior, maybe you’re tired of the repetitiveness of it.” One of the participants expressed disappointment with the way that ritual was received by the women in her chapter: I think that there are probably only a few women in my chapter who understand ritual. It is really hard for my sorority because no one really understands ritual . . . not even the older members get it. We have lost a lot of rituals and traditions in the five years that I 103
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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
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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 and 110: During new member education, you le
Page 111: Women’s Development within the So
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
Page 161 and 162: 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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