Our Acting Human course was an Interdisciplinary look at Anthropology. For us to best understand the topic, each of us students presented on a single question throughout the semester. My question was how do rituals act as social glue? After the presentation, we were to write a 2000-word essay either on our topic or another. I chose to keep with my topic, and more specifically focus on American Greek life to exemplify the importance of ritualisation.
I chose this topic specifically because while Greek life is a fundamental part of the American collegiate experience, the secrecy and ritualisation of it have little research done surrounding them.
Rituals and collective culture are part of what make humans unique. A ritual is a “causally opaque procedure… uninterpretable from the perspective of physical causality because [it] lacks an intuitive or observable causal connection between the specific action performed and the desired outcome or effect” (Nielsen 7). Rituals work as social glue by binding societies and groups together through costly acts that encourage commitment, leading to community, cooperation, and a sense of prosociality amongst the group. Three specific aspects - commitment, cooperation, and prosociality - stem from rituals, bind societies, and allow their lengthy survival.
While rituals have been prominent throughout history, a contemporary example of their ability to bind communities is displayed in Greek Life. College campuses in America and Canada often include single-sex social organisations called sororities (for women) and fraternities (for men) that are brought together through ritualistic acts (Hohman and Moody). Greek organisations focus on “developing leadership, philanthropy, community service, and strong bonds among like-minded students”(Hohman and Moody). In order to participate in these organisations, students take part in “formalized ceremonies that communicate the values of the organization to new members, and integrate members into the group” through a series of rituals (Mendez et al. 1).
Rituals that require costly acts encourage a greater commitment to a group (Henrich 244). Costly signalling as a part of ritual shows an individual’s commitment to the group and the intensity of their belief in group ideals (Sosis et al. 235). It also encourages a sense of social bonding, which establishes an intra-group cooperation essential to the sustainability of an organisation (234). By participating in physically costly acts, an individual is displaying a higher commitment to their group. While verbal commitments and ceremonies are important, they do not have the same level of influence as partaking in physical actions (Henrich 249).
Within the realm of Greek Life, these costly acts often come in the form of hazing. Hazing can be described as “the generation of costly induction experiences that do not appear to be group-relevant assessments or preparations” (Cimino 1). Despite outside disapproval, a 2017 study shows many students believe “hazing activities were part of tradition, necessary for team building, and part of just having fun” (Massey and Massey 57). While death by hazing is not considered common, Professor Hank Nuwer reports that there has been one death a year from hazing in fraternities and sororities from 1948 - 2021 with only two years exempt (Nuwer 2), emphasising it is more costly than some insiders may believe.
Despite the risk of discomfort and even possible death by hazing, an estimated 750,000 collegiates participate in Greek Life a year (Barshay). Many students go into this process knowing hazing is a possibility, yet they continue to participate for the same reason group members have risked themselves for thousands of years - as part of ritual. Studies of warring male societies show that the more frequent participation in costly ritual behaviour, the more cooperative the individuals were, and this cooperation has travelled down through generations to today’s Greek Life (Sosis et al. 235).
Willingness to participate in costly acts shows a willingness to sacrifice for one's community. Within Greek Life, 53% of students report hazing through excessive alcohol consumption, but other activities include sleep deprivation, verbal abuse, and public embarrassment (Allan and Madden 19). By participating in these risky acts, sorority and fraternity members are partaking in credibility enhancing displays, which give “reliable measures of the model’s actual degree of commitment to (or belief in) the representations that he has expressed symbolically” (Henrich 245), and further act to bond the group to one another while limiting freeriding – the act of using group resources without providing anything of value (Boyd et al. 10921).
Costly acts cement a commitment to the group, but rituals not involving costly acts can also transmit commitment and encourage cooperation through more commonplace ritualistic acts (Legare and Nielsen 3). By participating in more daily and weekly rituals relating to a group’s beliefs and values, cooperation within the group increases as well and binds the group further (3). Upon entrance into Greek Life, members participate in pinning ceremonies and then initiation, both of which work to encourage the ideals of the organisation and commitments of individuals to the group (Mendez et al. 1).
Greek Life rituals are often highly secret, and this sense of privacy deepens community values – members are bonded by being the only ones to know what goes on behind closed doors (Mendez et al. 11). Commitment to one another is essential in keeping the group cooperating intact, because committed members are more likely to be cooperators and preferred social partners (Sosis 235). Simply engaging in a group’s ritual can “signal membership in, and demonstrate commitment to that group, increase group cohesion, promote bonds among group members, and even create shared beliefs” (Liberman et al. 42). Members of Greek Life report feeling a greater sense of membership to their fraternity or sorority over other clubs, because of the reinforcement of group beliefs through ritual (Mendez et al. 4).
Greek Life organisations have been around for over 200 years, and while these societies have changed throughout their time, their rituals have remained much the same. Consistent with formal communities, sorority and fraternity members overimitate one another by using chants and oaths to reinforce their commitment (Nielsen 3). Rituals that have been passed down are used for formal occasions – initiations, pinning ceremonies, graduations – but also in daily life, such as oaths and handshakes, and are reported to serve as the impetus to bonding and committing to chapter values (Mendez et al. 10).
Unlike most other collegiate clubs and organisations, Greek Life does not end with graduation. Members of these organisations gain alumni status and many stay in contact with their chapter long after leaving the university (‘Sorority Rituals’ 1). Alumni are known to come back for events such as Founders’ Day and initiation, and their return leads to an opportunity for prestige-biassed transmission, where learners educate themselves on community action and ritual by following their models or prestigious members of their community (Henrich 245). Commonly exhibited by children towards adults, pledges follow prestiged-bias transmission by looking up to older and alumni members of these organisations. Alumni members serve as an essential part of the sustainability of Greek Life organisations and typically remain passionate and dedicated, not only to the group they are in, but also to their universities long after they physically depart campus (Barshay). Of Greek-affiliated alumni, 54% donate to their alma mater, and almost two-thirds recommend their university to new students (‘Fraternities and Sororities’ 5). Furthermore, Greek-affiliated students report the rituals of the organisation as being a key part to their commitment to their chapter and thus their university. Students describe their chapter’s rituals as giving them “a sense of pride and motivation, as well as a shared experience” that led to communal bonding and a feeling of togetherness, or rather, a social glue (Mendez et al. 10).
The commitment and cooperation encouraged by ritualistic acts serve as a foundation for creating prosociality amongst the group. Prosocial behaviours benefit the group as a whole, rather than just an individual (Jensen R748). A sense of responsibility toward one another also decreases the presence of freeriders, who harm the group (Sosis et al. 236). In religious communities, freeriders are often more sparse due to the presence of a “punishing god” (Atkinson and Bourrat 42). In Greek Life, national bodies are meant to serve a similar role, punishing free riders or individuals causing harm to the group. However, in recent history, national organisations are seen more as a barrier to reform, and fail to punish chapters (Marcus).
Greek Life historically has a bad reputation, with nonaffiliated members often harbouring negative attitudes toward Greek groups (Corts and Wells 845). Hazing, binge drinking, and sexual assault are all amongst the harmful acts attributed to Greek Life (Marcus). While group ritual is seen as a positive influence to those who belong (Goldfarb and Ebeerly 39), the intense bonding common in fraternities often leads to hypermasculinity that encourages harmful behaviours which oppose the values members are taught in their rituals (41). These groups become dangerous when they lose sight of the beliefs they espouse in their rituals and start acting in maladaptive ways by harming the community outside their organisation (41). Various cultural movements, including #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and Abolish Greek Life cropped up on university campuses in 2020 and 2021, and worked to point out the flaws in Greek Life chapters who failed to embody what their rituals teach (Marcus). Individuals focused on personal gain rather than the prosocial values of the group threaten these organisations as a whole through illegal and harmful actions (Marcus).
Despite challenges, there are a myriad of reasons sororities and fraternities have remained at the forefront of the American collegiate experience for over 200 years, but members and outsiders alike conclude their ritualisation is the most prominent (‘Helping Fraternity and Sorority Members Understand Ritual’ 34). Many students use their chapter rituals as a guiding “map” for their adult life, working to embody the values of their chapter both during and after their collegiate years (Sorority Rituals 8). Failure to embody the values held up by these organisations can lead to public backlash through protests and disciplinary actions (Marcus). The ritualistic acts of these organisations, be those the costly displays of hazing or the carefully planned and executed initiation processes, lead to Greek-affiliated students feeling a deep bond with their chapter and university (‘Fraternities and Sororities’ 5). While Greek Life possesses a controversial reputation, the rituals that define these organisations hold their institutions together with a kind of social glue that creates a strong commitment and cooperation among community members that is unseen in other university organisations (Mendez et al. 1).
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