General Information about Item:

• Initiation Ritual
• Dartmouth College
• Informant: Sarah Roberts
• Date Collected: Fall 2016

Informant Data:                   

• Sarah Roberts was born in Miami, FL in 1996. She has lived in Miami her entire life with her mother, father, two sisters, and brother. Today, she still lives with her family in Miami and is currently a senior at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. At Dartmouth, Sarah is majoring in cognitive science and minoring in education. In the fall of 2016, Sarah’s sophomore year at Dartmouth, she rushed Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority (KKG) and was initiated into the house as a new member. Sarah’s Grandmother, mother, and older sister are also all members of KKG since they joined the sorority when they were in college. In the spring of 2018, her junior year at Dartmouth, Sarah was elected as New Member Educator (NME) of KKG. When a new class is chosen in KKG, NME helps to initiate the women into the sorority. Sarah served as NME in the fall of 2018 when a new class of women became members of KKG.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: KKG is a national sorority that was founded in October of 1870 as a women’s fraternity at Monmouth College. Since then, KKG sorority has expanded and currently has 143 chapters throughout the country. Although the chapters are very different, all of them must perform the same initiation ritual with new members.
• Social Context: The Epsilon Chi chapter of KKG was founded at Dartmouth College in 1978. It was the second sorority at Dartmouth. Approximately fifty new members are taken every year from the sophomore class at Dartmouth—freshmen are not allowed to rush Greek houses.

Item:

• The initiation ritual for new members in KKG lasts for about 6 weeks. The new members are required to go to a meeting hosted by their NME every week. In these meetings, the NME teaches the new members about the rules and values of the sorority and facilitates getting-to-know-you games. The NME also creates “Big-Little” pairs, where one older member of the sorority is paired with a new member and acts as the new member’s mentor. Finally, at the end of the initiation, there is a formal initiation ceremony that every chapter of KKG has been required to conduct with their new members since the sorority was founded. The new members of the sorority dress in white robes to symbolize new beginnings. The older members lead the new members in traditional songs about togetherness and sisterhood. Finally, the old members put a special KKG pin on the robes of the new members, marking the official initiation of the new members into the sorority.

Analysis: 

• Initiation rituals consist of three stages: separation, transition, and incorporation. For this initiation ritual, separation occurs when the new class is chosen. The transition period occurs throughout the 6-week period when the women are learning about KKG but are not yet official members of the sorority. Finally, incorporation occurs after the official initiation ritual when the new members become permanent members of the sorority and are fully integrated into the house.

Meaning and interpretation: 

• For members of KKG sorority, this initiation ritual is a very important part of joining the house. The ritual helps new members learn more about the house they joined and what their experience will be like as an active member for the next 3 years. In addition, the initiation period helps new members get to know other women in the house and to feel comfortable in their new social space. This ritual is taken very seriously by older members of the house and the NMEs.

Comparison:

• Comparison within the subgroup:  In this sub-group, we focused on Dartmouth College social initiation rituals. One similarity between most of these rituals is that they are experienced by freshmen. A student’s freshman year is a time learn about his or her new community and the traditions that form its unique culture. Freshman year is also the time that most students join the clubs or sports teams that they will be most involved in throughout their Dartmouth careers. Therefore, it makes sense that so many of the Dartmouth social initiation rituals take place during the freshman year, such as the homecoming bonfire ritual. One difference within our subgroup is who initiates and runs each initiation ritual. Sometimes these rituals are set up and funded by the Dartmouth administration, and sometimes they are student-run. Another difference is the duration of each ritual. Some social spaces take a while to initiate into or involve a few different rituals that initiate new members, whereas others only require one short ritual.
• 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: “One special thing (about initiation) is how much things open up immediately. Suddenly you have 100 upperclassman girls saying hi to you as soon as you join…they know your name and they know your face and I think that is really special”

Collector: Caroline Elliott, Dartmouth College, Russian 13, Professor Valentina Apresyan, Professor Mikhail Gronas, Fall 2018

Tags/Keywords:

• Initiation
• Ritual
• Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority
• Freshman class
• Dartmouth