Literature Review #5

1. Fraternity Hazing and the Process of Planned Failure
   
2. Cimino, Aldo. Fraternity Hazing and the Process of Planned Failure. Journal of American Studies, 2016. Web.
3. The analysis is a study conducted by Aldo Cimino who researches a pledge process at so-called “Alpha” fraternity (used for anonymity). He explains the general process that the pledges go through at every pledge meeting. The process includes a general cycle of calisthenics, force-feeding noxious food, and reciting fraternity information to the brothers. He sees a pattern in that hazing in the pledge process is meant to make the pledges fail. Hard work is not met with the same “amount” of rewards, it is random that the pledges get rewards or punishments with succeeding, but punishment is inevitable with failure to do fraternity tasks.
4. Aldo Cimino has published several works on the topic of hazing, he’s an Anthropology professor at UC Santa Barbara. He made this particular work possible because he surveyed and analyzed a fraternity with the fraternity’s full consent, and contained identities to ensure trust and anonymity despite hazing being illegal.
5. Hazing: the abuse of new or prospective group members. It is illegal in most US states and explicitly stated in Alpha’s university’s rules and own national fraternity.

Pledge: a newcomer who has received a bid to join the fraternity and accepted it. The pledge goes through a “pledge process” which typically takes up to 10 weeks where they have several meetings a week filled with tasks to do and information to learn.

6. “To reiterate, planned failure is when a task is assigned that is specifically designed to induce failure. The way in which “failure” is created, however, can be quite variable. For Alpha, the pledge book is where planned failure begins. Alpha's pledge book enumerates the goals and ideals of the fraternity and provides general guidelines for pledge behavior.”

“For Alpha, “correctness” has multiple dimensions. Pledges must speak the items loudly and clearly, and they must not mispronounce any word. Even a single mistake in a long series of correct recitations can be met with hazing. Further, recitation tasks are often split up between pledges, with mistakes from one pledge creating hazing ordeals for all pledges.”

“One possibility is that planned failure is an attempt to shift some of the responsibility for hazing. If hazees believe that they can avoid some hazing, but continually fail to meet the conditions for doing so, they may blame themselves or “the rules,” rather than the hazers.”

7. This analysis is particularly important to provide a look into the “secret” parts of Greek life: hazing. The audience for my paper may or may not be a part of Greek life, and those who are not in a fraternity or sorority likely does not know anything about Greek culture. The Alpha fraternity’s process should not be applied to all fraternities and sororities, but does show a “typical” layout of what a pledge process is like.