Fraternities - typic idetifications

[Elephant Walk]

That's sort of what I thought you meant by common.

I am wondering if we have the same connotation on "ritual". Ritual is something done behind closed doors, which only members know about. It has been passed down for years.

We have flags, but the colors symbolize things we believe in such as knowledge, brotherhood and so on. Not where we are from (although I think Kappa Sigs make such claims and those are on its flag). Symbols are on the flags and words...instead of just colors.

I have heard about the Burschenschaft and heard of their political activities. Interesting.

I'll be at either The Hague, Netherlands or Berlin in the Spring and hope to travel to see these fraternernities and learn this stuff.

[emb021]

A 'tradition' is something done again and again for years. The old "but we've always done it that way!"

When we speak of rituals, we are speaking of a ritual ceremony. Some may be private (done behind closed doors and only members may see), others are public.

A wedding is a kind of public ritual ceremony. A funeral is another kind of public ritual ceremony. There are common things amoung most wedding/funerals (some specific to certain religious groups, etc), but allows to people to do their own thing.

One of the major thing that separates fraternal groups (and I include masons, masonic-like groups, and college fraternities/sororities)from other groups is the use of ritual ceremonies. In these ceremonies, the candidates are revealed certain things, will take and swear by some oath, and the like. But as some of us have noted, while there may be common elements, each college fraternity/sorority has their own unique ceremonies.

[emb021]

Originally Posted by interested-one

Perhaps it will be easier if I tell how I think a fraternity is.

Here in Germany there are several types of fraternities. A 'Corps' is an unpolitical fraternity type, in that every male student may start as a pledge of course. A 'Burschenschaft' is political that means that they give petitions to the parliament according to several political topics.

In Germany almost every fraternity has a flag with three colors that represent their historical origin, so Corpsbrothers wear a stripe with that three colors.

Not quite a matchup in American colleges. I would say that in general, what you are calling 'corps' sounds similar to social Greek Letter Organizations (GLO). Your 'Burschenschaft' sound similiar to a college political club, which are not fraternities. I am not aware of any GLO which is expressly political.

First off, at our colleges we have a wide range of clubs & organizations. GLOs are but one kind. Some are focused on political matters (college version of our major political parties, or focused on a single issue), some are for various interests of students (poetry, movies, science-fiction, games, etc), some may focus on sports, community service, professional fields (business, law, medicine), etc.

Even amoung GLOs, there are certain types. The 'social' GLOs are what most think of when speaking of fraternities. By and large, they are broken down by gender (fraternities for males, sororities for girls). Some are considered "Black GLO", and you also have Latino and multicultural. Social GLOs usually own a house where members live. This is the main draw of GLOs: providing a place to live/eat, but NOT the only draw. GLOs grow out of early dinner clubs and the like (providing students a place to eat and later live, during a time before dorms and such were more common). These groups recruit with a particular recruitment period (traditionally called 'rush', but some may not use that term) and bring in new members thru a period of probationary membership (traditionally called a 'pledge period', but some no longer use that term).

Other types of GLO include Service (doing community service is their main focus), professional (bringing students focused on a certain profession, like business, law, medicine is their main focus), and honorary (recognizing the top students in a particular field with membership). These groups may or may not use pledge programs. Pretty much all of these groups are now co-ed.

While some fraternities may have flags, that is not a main thing. I think the standard items that each GLO has is:

* membership pin/badge
* coat of arms
* motto
* colors (usually 2, which members will get their letter shirts in)
* other symbols (certain animal, flower, and the like)

Membership is usually shown by the wearing of their membership pin/badge (but some groups may limit this to only formal wear), and letter shirts/jackets. Hats & t-shirts are also common. Pledges (whatever a group may call them) will have a different pin and may be provided with a different t-shirt, but usually until they are full members can not wear any of the above.


Please note, I am trying to speak in general terms. Some of these things are not universal to all orgs or all colleges. I've tried to note what is most common, but there will be exceptions, otherwise you'll get a lot of "that's not true of MY group" or "that's not how it is at MY college", etc.

Hope this helps.

Am sure others will add/correct what I put here. :\

[Elephant Walk]

You are aware that he is a foreigner who doesn't speak the language fluently, right?

Even if my English was semi-fluent, I would be pissed that you wrote thirty paragraphs and would never read it.

[emb021]

Originally Posted by interested-one

We don't wear special clothes, we just wear leather shoes, often boat shoes, good trowsers and a chemise with a collar. As I tried to explain, an stripe, called 'Band' in Germany, is over our right shoulder to our left side. And the Band-ends are hold together by a special Metal knop that is a present given by an older corpsbrother to his 'special' pledge.

Ok.

We don't really view the jackets and shirts as 'special clothes' per say. Its not like everyone is required to wear them, but most are proud to do so.

In some ways, our jackets and shirts serve the same purpose as your 'bands' (which might be called sashes).

A pledge choose his 'special' corpsbrother to be his mentor.

We have something like this. The corpsbrother is a "Big Brother" to his "Little Brother" pledge. However, the pledge doesn't choose, the chapter does. But he is to be a mentor to the pledge and will usually present the pledge with his jacket or letter shirt when he becomes a brother. Being a Big Brother is an honor, which must be earned.

Not all GLOs have a Big/Little program.

Making a unity is one of the most important tasks of a corps, so all corps fence, they drink beer competitions against other fraternities, make balls and trips to fraternities in whole germany, with whom a corps has a friendship contract.

I just don't get the use of this hazing. Why should a pledge being threat like an animal?
I have read, that some pledges have to run naked in the university or do some dangerous stuff.

People usually allow themselves to be hazed because they feel they must to prove themselves. To show they deserve to get into the group. That's usually how most justify doing it. That the pledges must prove themselves worthy of membership.

Running naked in the university is something that happens in the Phillipines. They have fraternities there as well. Don't think it happens in America.

Here a pledge simply does not have all rights an older corpsbrother has but he is not responsible if something goes wrong. They just have to do more work and listen to the older corpsbrothers. And of coure learning history, fencing and tradition.

That's how it basically should be here, but when hazing comes in, it is a problem.

[Psi U MC Vito]

Originally Posted by interested-one

I just don't get the use of this hazing. Why should a pledge being threat like an animal?

Exactly. That's why hazing is illegal in all fifty of the United States and banned by almost all GLOs. Most Greeks currently feel the same way.

[emb021]

Originally Posted by interested-one

OK. It's good to hear that hazing is more a clishée

Hazing still happens, sadly. There is a whole section of greekchat devoted to it.

But probably not as much as some people think.

To a degree it is a cliche' of american fraternities.

People watch the movie "Animal House" and think college life and fraternities are like that.

How long is a fraternity brother active in the fraternity?

Here, a corpsbrother is being active for 3 or 4 semesters active, he lives during this time in the house and after this time he becomes inactive, he does not have so many duties to the corps and concentrates on his studies.

Ideally, one should be active from the time they join until they graduate. And after that, its hoped they have some involvement as an alumni member.

Reality is there are some who go inactive after being involved for a few semesters. Not sure what the average is. In my organization, the average is a year and a half.

[Elephant Walk]

Originally Posted by interested-one

OK. It's good to hear that hazing is more a clishée

Not all the time is he treated "like an animal".

Hazing can be a good thing which builds people and pledge classes up.

How long is a fraternity brother active in the fraternity?

Here, a corpsbrother is being active for 3 or 4 semesters active, he lives during this time in the house and after this time he becomes inactive, he does not have so many duties to the corps and concentrates on his studies.

The entire time he is in school.

However, has he gets older (the last year in school) he becomes less active and shows up for parties and meetings. Not much else. That happens often, but there are exceptions.