Initiation Ritual
Connor LaMastra
Dartmouth College
October 3rd, 2018
Informant Data:
Connor LaMastra is a member of the class of 2021 here at Dartmouth and is a member of the Men’s Swim Team. He is from Atlanta, GA and has been swimming his entire life. His older sister also swims at the collegiate level for Johns Hopkins University. He credits his sister for getting him interested in swimming at a young age to follow in her footsteps.
Contextual Data:
Social Context: This initiation ritual is performed by new members of the Dartmouth Men’s Swim Team at the first swim meet of the season. This ritual impacts these new members through hard, physical exertion as well as bringing together the class to feed on each other’s energy.
Cultural Context: In a collegiate swim meet, a swimmer is only allowed to swim in 3 of the 11 total events. Swimming more than this results in disqualification of the swimmer from the meet. In order to swim multiple events, a swimmer must “exhibition” the events. This means that they are allowed to swim the events in the meet along with the everyone else; however, they cannot score points. Events during a meet are swam back to back and swimming two in a row would give you only a few minutes of rest between the two swims.
Item:
At the first meet of the season, the freshman swimmers swim every event at the meet. Due to the quick turnaround between events, this becomes a grueling exercise. It serves as a way for the freshman to acclimate themselves to the intense nature of college athletics where they will be training much more than they are used to in high school. The rest of the team cheer them on and encourage them to keep pushing themselves. They learn to rely on each other and the rest of the team when they are tired and are struggling.
Analysis:
Because they must be removed from the meet in order to complete this ritual, they are unable to score points for the team. The three stages of initiation rituals are illustrated in this ritual. The separation from the rest of the team for the duration of the meet to complete the ritual, the transition as they swim all the events, and the incorporation back as a member of the team able to score points and contribute for the next meet.
James Patrick; 22 years old
4400 Montreux Rd
Warrenton, VA
16 W Wheelock St
Hanover, NH
Dartmouth College
Russian 13 Fall