Degradation ceremonies: sociological analysis of status transitions

Degradation Ceremonies: How degradation ceremonies are used as a means of social control

Degradation ceremonies are a not-so subtle means of formal and informal social controls in a variety of institutional as well as informal contexts. The ceremonies suggest to the initiates involved that they must behave in such a fashion or else they will be socially ostracized. Degradation ceremonies need not be formal social or religious rituals -- for example, the House Un-American Activities anti-communist witch hunts could be seen as a form of degradation ceremony, even for those who were not legally charged with a crime or imprisoned. The mere threat of tainting of the supposedly offending individual with the label of communist, if he or she did not 'name names' could condemn the accused person in the eyes of the public, and degrade the accused person's name and reputation in the formalized context of the ceremony or ritual of the congressional hearing. Other less public but equally insidious degradation ceremonies are seen in fraternity hazing rituals, whereby individual's distinct social identities are impugned upon, so that the individual may enjoy the supposed privilege of becoming part of a social collective of individuals, who enforce conformist rules but offer exclusive privileges of membership.

Social controls through degradation can thus take place through official and unofficial channels and provide a respite from loneliness as well as relief from the threat of being cast out of a particular society. A cynic might call the military means of basic training a degradation ritual of sorts, whereby the ego as well as the body of the central participants being initiated is broken down, so that it might be built up again, only now within the cohesive unit of the organization, after the young trainee's sense of self has been rendered fragile in its individual state. The purpose of this degradation, however, is to further military defense of a nation -- unlike degradation ceremonies such as the unofficial degradation, for example, of a new student at a school who is summarily made to feel poorly about him or herself, so that he or she will feel a need to be socially 'needy' towards those possessing power, and conform his or her behavior, like a military recruit to a preexisting social criteria.