Freshman initiation, also known as hazing, is a term to describe activities that are designed to harass, abuse or humiliate newcomers in order to make them part of the group. Hazing is seen in many different groups including gangs, workplaces, military units, sports teams and schools. Often hazing is done in good faith as a bonding experience, but some groups can take it to far and either
. emotionally or physically harm the people wanting to join in with a society. Hazing is prohibited by law in most places due to the possibly of extreme initiations and the effect it has on the person going through it.The most well known initiation rituals are those employed by college fraternities to use on potential members known as pledges. Some fraternities stage fake kidnappings to bring pledges to secret meeting areas where they go through screening by even more rituals and initiation ceremonies, while others simply make the pledges into servants around the fraternity house until they have a better understanding of each pledges character and whether they would be a good fit in their group. Most colleges have been cracking down on such behavior, so hazing has been dying out on a lot of campuses or is being done in secret.While hazing has been portrayed as inherently bad, if done right it can be a friendly bonding experience, and http://virtualheartland.com/classof71/essays/initiate.htm has several instances of hazing that could be used without hurting more than the newcomers pride. The author states that even though the hazing was dreaded and horrifying, after it was over it was possible to look back on it with a sort of smug pride. Most people find that no matter how bad the initiation is, after it is done they cannot wait to be the ones doing the initiating to the next group of people. More reference links: http://virtualheartland.com/classof71/essays/initiate.htm http://www.stophazing.org/
