

School-Sanctioned Mid-18th-Century Hazing Rituals at Harvard - smacktoward
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2014/09/02/history_of_harvard_customs_hazing_rituals_of_the_school_in_the_18th_century.html

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SocksCanClose
Agree. Besides, point by point (from the article)

1\. No freshmen wearing hats on the quad. -- This is a classic stylistic
indicator of manhood. By telling Freshmen to not wear their hats, it's a way
of identifying them to their peers as new students.

2\. Taking off one's hat when passing a senior student. -- This isn't about
subservience, it's about creating an atmosphere of collegiality. It's why in
the military junior ranking personnel salute senior ranking personnel: because
saying hello is a great way to create common bonds of friendship and fealty,
and because you need some sort of rule of who should say hello first.

3\. "No Freshman should be saucy... or speak to a Senior with his hat on."
Again -- this is anachronistic. But only insofar as wearing a hat while
talking to someone was a sign of higher social status. Harvard is raising men
to serve in the public sphere, and deference (or at least its outer edifice)
is important to get ahead.

4\. + 5. (same as above -- just good manners)

6\. Privacy. Similar to 3, 4&5.

7\. ???? No idea what this means -- though these seem to be ranks of some kind
given the linguistics. Perhaps these are "Freshman" "Sophomore" "Junior"
"Senior" and then "Professor" in 19th century student lingo?

8\. This is a great lesson for anybody. When asked to do something, do it
quickly and efficiently. Wish I could teach my peers this skill!

9\. This is the 19th century version of digital privacy.

10\. This is just basic standardization for executing code. They're just
telling everybody what phrases indicate the end of the command.

11., 12. 13. - more good manners. Freshmen seem to essentially be social media
tools. Want to play a sport on the green? Send out an invite (i.e. Freshman)
to get your friends. What would you prefer, that they get a slave to do it? If
it's a Freshman, at least they can rationalize it by saying they're simply
investing in a system which has a 3-1 ROI (i.e. for the next three years
they'll be able to utilize the same system to their own benefit).

14\. This is a good rule for kids who are likely to be a little wild. It's
like forcing people to log in to Facebook in order to comment -- the thought
will always be there that at any given time someone might come in and see what
you're doing. Also good training for public life. Getting used to public
scrutiny.

...

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keep2carry20
Hazing? More like good manners.

