Ritual and meanings
You rites of passage they are customs adopted by different cultures that carry different meanings and are associated with a moment considered decisive in the subject's life. the french ethnographer Arnold Van Gennep (1873 – 1957), devoted himself to the study of rites of passage of different cultures and their meanings. Van Gennep defined them as traditional events that mark a change in status or condition of a group or individual in their community. From this perspective, college hazing is a rite of passage which marks the separation between the school and the representations it carries, the entry into university life, which ends up by to be understood as the passage to adult life for younger people, and the achievement represented by entering teaching higher.
Hazing is generally applied at the time of entry of new students, who are now referred to as "freshmen". The varied meanings of the ritual can be understood as a form of separation between veteran students, who already feel in a superior position to those who have just entered the university world; or as a way of demonstrating the inferiority of what the "freshman" is and represents, the subject who comes from outside the university world, which will have to be "illuminated" by the academic knowledge that he will receive throughout his life university. It is also a moment of self-assertion for those who, like the new freshmen, are also submitted to the rite of passage and now wish to recognize themselves and be recognized as "veterans". Within the world of meanings adopted by those who undergo the ritual, hazing becomes a dividing point between a phase of separation and a phase of incorporation of the individual into the new group
hazing and violence
Hazing, although it has its meaning for those who participate in the ritual, becomes a problem as its participants start to adopt violent and destructive practices. There is also, in some academic communities, coercion for freshmen to participate in hazing, under the threat of exclusion or isolation of those who did not accept to undergo the ritual. Cases of bodily harm or even death have become common, which has led to questioning how hazing is done.
Today, the strong awareness campaign regarding violent hazing has had an effect on the way it is carried out. The solidarity hazing, which consists of collecting food or providing community services by freshmen and veterans together, is increasingly adopted. The coercive character also ended up disappearing in most cases, although there are still communities that still maintain the rite of passage as a tradition.
Although it is still seen as an important and significant moment in the life of the young person who wants to go through hazing, it is It is extremely important to emphasize that the individual does not have and should not submit to violent, humiliating or destructive forms of custom. There are countless ways to celebrate the new phase of life, violence, however, is absolutely unnecessary.
GENNEP, A. V. The rites of passage. 2. ed., Trans. Mariano Ferreira. Petrópolis: Voices, 2011.
by Lucas Oliveira
Graduated in Sociology
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/sociologia/trote-estudantil.htm