Initiation Ritual

 

Alie Hunter
Dartmouth College
October 25th, 2018

 

Informant Data:

Alie Hunter is a member of the class of 2021 here at Dartmouth and is a member of the Women’s Swim Team. She is from Toronto, Canada. She grew up swimming in Canada which was uncommon for her area, but she had to swim because she was not very good at skiing.

 

Contextual Data:

Social Context: This initiation ritual is performed by new members of the Dartmouth Women’s Swim Team at the beginning of the season. It is initiated by the seniors on the swim team and they are in charge of continuing the ritual.

 

Cultural Context: Often times on sports teams, the seniors will not put a ton of emphasis on getting to know the freshmen on the team because they will only be spending one season with them. This results in the freshmen not getting to know them as well as they might want to. As a freshmen it can seem scary to approach a senior who you do now know very well and ask them to a meal.

 

 

Item:

At the beginning of the season, each senior girl emails out to all the freshmen telling them that they would like to get dinner with them. All the freshmen as a group then go eat with each senior and get to know them and break the ice so to speak.

 

 

Analysis:

This initiation ritual incorporates the freshmen by enabling them to get to know the seniors and demonstrating that everyone on the team cares about getting to know them. It also helps them get to know each other within their own class because they get these meals as a class plus a senior. The freshmen experience separation through not really knowing any seniors prior to these meals but then transition to knowing them and each other better as they get the meals together. Finally, they are incorporated now knowing more about the senior girls and each other.

 

Comparison:

This is similar to the Men’s Water polo ritual of getting dinner and telling true and false stories. In both rituals, the freshmen get together with upperclassmen in a relaxed setting and learn more about them. They also get to know each other by being together and telling stories. However, in this ritual it is only run by the seniors where in Water polo is was all upperclassmen.

 

James Patrick; 22 years old
4400 Montreux Rd
Warrenton, VA
16 W Wheelock St
Hanover, NH
Dartmouth College
Russian 13 Fall