Title: Wake Ups

General Information about Item:

• Customary Folklore: Ritual, Tradition

• English

• USA

Informant Data:

• Dami Apoeso is 21 years old and was born in Hartford Connecticut. He grew up in the Bronx, New York City and currently lives in Spring Valley, New York. He is majoring in computer science. He danced for approximately 6 years in a summer camp before joining Sheba his sophomore year at Dartmouth.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context

All members of the team participate in this ritual. New members are unaware of the ritual at first. The tradition occurs in the early morning, during the fall term, after new members for the team have been selected. The information says that his has been a tradition for a very long time and he first experienced it his sophomore fall when he joined Sheba.

• Cultural Context

Sheba tries to be a very inclusive group and form a close bond with its members. This culture is represented in this tradition, as it helps the new members form a connection with the other new members who were surprised by the wake ups, and with the returning member who they have breakfast with.

Item:

After new member are selected for the team, they are woken up early in the morning by returning members. The new members are told that the team needs another audition. The returning members take the new members from their room but then surprise them with flair(mismatched, odd clothing), welcome the new members to the team, take them to Lou’s Diner for breakfast and take pictures with everyone. Afterwards, the new members are allowed to go back to sleep.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Wake Ups

Transcript of Associated File:

“Since i was a sophomore when I auditioned, I only auditioned for Sheba. The process took about 4 hours. Once I was done I went home, went to sleep, received a knock on my door at 6 am saying that we needed another audition and when I got there they said, just kidding welcome to Sheba and they handed me these items of flair to wear and then we went to Lou’s and took some pictures and then had breakfast and went back to sleep.”

Informant’s Comments:

The informant remembers his wake up as a great experience as it was his first real experience with Sheba after joining the team.

Collector’s Comments:

Wake Ups are another common tradition amongst various groups and teams across campus, and they do a good job of making new members feel included and special.

Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid

Compiled/Analyzed by: Sruthi Pasupuleti

Tags/Keywords:

• Dance
• Team
• New Member Initiation
• Tradition
• Ritual