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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

A number of participants did not believe that ritual had an impact on their behavior. Many who responded in such a way expressed that they did not understand ritual nor enjoy it: behavior: I don’t really think any of our rituals apply to my daily life. Maybe the meaning of them does I just don’t understand the meaning of them. As far as what I thought of them and the stuff that I did because it was ritual, I don’t ever really think about it. If we took a vote and I said: A is ceremony, B is incorporate into your life. I would say it would probably be 60 / 40 with the majority saying ritual is just a ceremony. It is very difficult because most girls come into the chapter and they see the sorority as just what I am doing in college this is just for fun and a way to get scholarship and leadership experience. I honestly don't really think about sorority ritual in my everyday life. I don't usually think about it except about ten or fifteen minutes past the ritual meetings but, then again, in my sorority, we don't really do everything right. We don't really do ritual that often. What we do do, we tend to down-size it a lot by making things really quicker, so for me it is hard to say ritual really stands out outside of my chapter because we really don't do it. There are a few women in my chapter who see ritual and who see initiation and the ceremonies that we have to perform as a waste of time. I think that are some members in my chapter that just see it as a ceremony and just think it’s uhhhh. Then there are the ones that don’t really come around and you know they see it more as like a pain to go to the ceremony. Then there are some that are just gung ho and they influence the girls and how much they care about ritual. There are definitely extremes in our chapter. There are definitely the girls that could fall asleep during ritual and there are also girls who will cry because the girl sitting next to her is sleeping and doesn’t feel the same way that she does. One participant indicated that she wished that ritual did have more of an impact on her Sometimes I wish that I would use ritual more in my daily life. When I go through the ritual again I am reminded of everything that is special to me and it kind of makes me feel a little bit guilty that I am not doing my best as a person and sometimes I wish that I could do more as a sorority member. That kind of affects me. 110
The reasons that the participants gave for the impact, or lack of impact, of ritual in their lives varied, but many were quite aware that ritual did make an impact, either in a big or small way. Some expressed desire for greater understanding and greater impact. Summary These findings give insight for those who work with sorority women and emphasize the need to evaluate the role of ritual and its impact on the values and behavior of contemporary sorority women. Several questions were raised by the data regarding the ways the recruitment of women by sororities. Do sororities recruit women who have values that are similar to those expressed in their ritual ceremonies or do they recruit women for other reasons? Can the ritual ceremonies be a foundation to hold members accountable for their behavior? Can programs be developed to help the sorority women understand their development and use that as a means to keep them involved in their sorority? To examine the questions raised by this research, a summary of the study, discussion of the conclusions drawn from the findings, and recommendations for future research are discussed in Chapter V. 111
Page 1 and 2:
SORORITY RITUALS: RITES OF PASSAGE
Page 3 and 4:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am very grateful
Page 5 and 6:
for teaching me that a group of peo
Page 7 and 8:
TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ......
Page 9 and 10:
CHAPTER V: SUMMARY, DISCUSSION, REC
Page 11 and 12:
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Each year th
Page 13 and 14:
The member groups of the National P
Page 15 and 16:
hopes of the founders rather than t
Page 17 and 18:
ceremony is complete, that person i
Page 19 and 20:
80,000 women join sororities. On mo
Page 21 and 22:
issues, and topics …that formerly
Page 23 and 24:
when do we use it? How do we use it
Page 25 and 26:
the sorority experience has on the
Page 27 and 28:
The lack of information concerning
Page 29 and 30:
of the NPC member groups, and to co
Page 31 and 32:
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Thi
Page 33 and 34:
Ritual Ceremonies and Symbolism in
Page 35 and 36:
Robson writes further: In a world c
Page 37 and 38:
strengthened by encountering differ
Page 39 and 40:
student initiated and created to au
Page 41 and 42:
Gradually, however, they took over
Page 43 and 44:
Following the founding of Kappa Alp
Page 45 and 46:
efer to themselves as "service" org
Page 47 and 48:
Alpha Xi Delta Fraternity Lombard C
Page 49 and 50:
What Is Ritual? In order to explain
Page 51 and 52:
theorist/researcher in the area of
Page 53 and 54:
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 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 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: I think that ritual has made me a b
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
Page 163 and 164: six months doing literature researc
Page 165 and 166: common knowledge similarities--the
Page 167 and 168: Correspondence II To: Shelia Barnes
Page 169 and 170: I truly appreciate your guidance an
Page 171 and 172:
Application for Exemption from IRB
Page 173 and 174:
VITA Mari Ann Callais was born in 1
show all

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?