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Social Identity and Expressive Symbols: The Meaning of an Initiation Ritual 1
Author(s) -
MERTEN GARY SCHWARTZ DON
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1968.70.6.02a00060
Subject(s) - identity (music) , ideology , solidarity , hierarchy , meaning (existential) , sociology , social psychology , social hierarchy , aesthetics , epistemology , psychology , anthropology , law , political science , politics , philosophy
This paper examines the relationship between expressive symbols and the identity transformations implicit in adolescent initiation rituals. Previous work views these rites as a means of insuring role commitment; they enable a society to motivate its members to willingly accept adult role obligations essential to its survival. On the other hand, our analysis of high school sorority initiation rites in an urban community suggests that they confirm the initiate's new social identity in a way that strengthens the moral categories that define the local status system. In contrast to those who argue that these sorts of rituals promote community solidarity, we maintain that they support the ideology of the dominant groups in a local status hierarchy.