Rituals: Playing College Softball Team

Rituals Athletics are the biggest ritual on campus at Transylvania University. Participating in collegiate sports is a huge commitment and requires mental and physical strength. Life on a college campus is based around a weekly routine, or ritual, that the previous culture has passed down throughout the years. Those who are not a part of a culture and their ritual may not understand why one would endure the qualifications such ritual. But those who are a part of the culture, know how rewarding it is to be a part of something great and have substantial benefits in the long run. Arguably, one of the most rigorous rituals on Transylvania’s campus would have to be the softball team and their practices. To be successful on the softball team, …show more content…
Victor Turner explains rituals in anthropology as actions with cultural purposes. There are three stages that represent Turner’s definition: the separation stage, the liminal stage, and the aggregate stage. The separation stage, the first stage, is an indication of the detachment of the individual or group. In the case of playing college softball at Transylvania University, this would be when a student in high school decides to leave home and join a university. The decision to play softball could be acknowledged, but they are not yet a part of the ritual. The separation stage is important because the student regains a new sense of self and has a positive outlook for the future. They also might experience a little fear of the unknown, but that is the beauty of the separation stage. The liminal stage, the second stage, is defined as symbolic behavior that signifies the detachment of what an individual has known. For students, this would be the point where they have left their home, joined Transylvania University, but has yet to begun the rituals known to members of the softball team. In the liminal stage, students (or athletes) are aware of the fact that they will soon begin their rituals within the softball culture, but are still anxious to begin. The last and final stage is the aggregate stage. The aggregate stage is the stage where the cycle is complete, consisting of a new identity and more to learn. On the Transylvania University softball team, this is when the team has their first practice together. When the team steps on the field, the automatically become one. A team is always there for one another and is full of friends that will be a helping hand in a time of need. When immersing myself with the softball weekend culture, there were many times when a story would be told and the phrase “She was a senior last year, so you wouldn’t know her” would be said