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

itual among themselves outside of the context of the ritual ceremony. There are exceptions with
chapters who intentionally have made ritual an integral part of their chapter experience.
Another dynamic observed during the focus group interviews was that the members who
had been in the chapters the longest were the ones who would answer most of the questions or at
least answer the questions first. The newer members would often respond to the answers of the
“more experienced” members. The newer members seemed more cautious in answering the
questions.
Four of the focus group interviews consisted of women from the same chapter. The
interview dynamics were similar to the other focus group interviews in that the members who
had been members the longest took the lead on answering the questions. They did seem more
comfortable talking about ritual possibly because they were all members of the same sorority.
Campus Descriptions
A description of the campuses where the interviews were conducted is presented in order
to create an understanding of the campus culture. These descriptions were gathered from personal
observation, information from the person responsible for Greek Life on a campus, the University
web sites, and publications from the institutions. As part of the interview process, I indicated to
the participants that their institutions would be discussed as part of this study, but not their
sororities nor the participants themselves.
An over sampling of campuses in the southeastern part of the country was due to limited
resources, time constraints, and my inability to travel to all parts of the United States. Several of
the campuses that were chosen that are located in the southeast typically attract students from
various parts of the country and are not typically southern campuses. Tulane University and
Loyola University are campuses that are very different than other institutions in the South based
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