Title: Initiation rituals of music groups at Dartmouth College – Rockapellas2

General Information about Item:

• Genre: Initiation Ritual
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: USA
• Informant: Ijeoma Nwuke, female, 20 years old
• Place Collected: Dartmouth College, King Arthur Flower Café
• Date Collected: 10-13-2018

Informant Data:

• Ijeoma Nwuke comes from Lagos, Nigeria. She is a sophomore at Dartmouth College. She is an Engineering major. On campus, she has been a member of the Ricapellas acapella group since freshman year.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: The Rocapellas are an acapella group at Dartmouth College. They perform songs that deal with social justice. Many of the acapella groups at Dartmouth perform initiation rituals and the Rocapellas are no exeption. The Rocapellas’ initiation process is deemed important because welcomes the new members and allows them to see how they get along with the rest of the group outside of rehearsal.
• Social Context: The folk group that the Rocapellas consist of singers who feel deeply passionate about social justice. The setting in which one part of the ritual takes place is private – the new members are taken to an unknown location and initially made to believe that they

Item:

• On a Saturday, starting at 9 a.m, Ijeoma went through the first round of auditions to be in an acapella group. After the first round came the second round of auditions. Her welcome into the Rocapellas, also known as the initiation process, was being woken up at 3 in the morning. She was told they were going to Canada, gave her some “flair” and drove them to an unknown location. They ended up going to a restaurant, having breakfast and just getting to know each other.
• A second part of initiation consists of getting together, watching a movie, eating food, and singing their audition song. All the members are required to do this in an effort to bring the group together as a whole.

Analysis: Initiation rituals consist of three stages: separation, transition and incorporation.

• For the first part of initiation, the separation stage can be viewed as the process of being woken up by the group and taken an unknown location as they are separated from the campus. The transition stage includes the time during which they believe they are being taken to Canada as well as all the activities at the unknown location, including games and singing songs. Incorporation is the stage at which they go to the “Shack” and learn more about the new and the old members.
• The second part of initiation can be included in the incorporation stage and is used to further solidify membership and create greater group unity.

Meaning and interpretation: Initiation rituals of the Rocapellas, much like the initiation process of the rest of the music groups, has the purpose of making the new members feel welcome. According to the informants, even though the process was somewhat strange and scary initially, it ultimately made them feel less anxious about being new in the group. The initiation process also had the purpose of creating a feeling of excitement and group unity.

Comparison:

• Comparison within the subgroup: More professional groups (those guided by a director) are notified that they had become part of the group prior to initiation. That is not the case with acapella groups (i.e. the Rocapellas). All the groups within the subgroup are surprised by the wakeups and all the groups get a meal as part of initiation. This is the case because the meal has the purpose of bringing the group together as the new members and old members get to know each other better. The goal of initiation for all the music groups is not to scare or test the new members, but to welcome them into their circle.
• Comparison with the rest of the subgroups: The subgroups differ dramatically across the board. Some of the subgroups focus on various ethnic groups while others focus on groups within Dartmouth. The initiation rituals of the groups within Dartmouth usually have the purpose of welcoming new members into their community and are symbolic. Ethnic-based group rituals have the purpose of testing the new members. Additionally, ethnic groups’ initiation rituals tend to be related to religious practices. Initiation rituals of Dartmouth groups are not religious in character. What all groups have in common though is the fact that the process of initiation creates closeness with the rest of the group and makes one feel completely immersed into the group.

Transcript: “It made me feel welcomed and less frightened, especially since I was quite anxious going into the audition process.”

Collector: Katarina Nesic, Dartmouth College, Russian 13, Professor Valentina Apresyan, Professor Mikhail Gronas, Fall 2018

Tags/Keywords:

• Initiation
• Ritual
• Acapella Groups
• Dartmouth