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Students Invent Modern Rituals in Experimental Honors Class

Ribbons, candles, stones, water—such symbolic objects inspired the modern rituals created on a mid-semester retreat of the linked classes of Honors professor Sally McNall and anthropologist Claire Farrer.

Twelve freshmen and sophomores in the experimental Honors class “Make Believe: Creativity and Interpretation” and its linked anthropology course “Human Cultural Diversity” gathered for an afternoon on the lawns of a country bed and breakfast inn to explore the concept and function of ceremony and ritual. Dividing into groups of three, they designed rituals to celebrate rites of passage for transitional events that generally go unmarked in our modern society.

Briana Smith, from San Diego, was the officiator for a “Binding of the Spirits” ritual for two friends parting. Two students were joined with a ribbon around their clasped hands. Smith passed stones endowed with symbolic values of courage, peace of mind, health, and good fortune in a rhythmic movement around the clasped hands. Finally the participants blew out a candle to bind the spirits of the two friends. “The binding means that they will be joined forever,” said Smith, “and each may draw upon the other’s strength when needed.” Laura Murray, of San Leandro, one of those bound, felt it was “a way to leave friends but still be with them.” She could imagine performing the ritual “in real life,” because “everyone can relate to leaving friends.”

Students agreed that a ritual for first sexual experience would be helpful, McNall said, because “no one knows how to handle first sex.” She observed that there is “a lack of a common sense of what is appropriate and meaningful about one’s sexuality, except for those saving themselves for marriage, who see sex as a sacrament.”

“My students are very brave,” declared McNall, praising their willingness to share in this unique learning experience. “They also had a lot of fun—there was much laughter.”

McNall, an undergraduate theatre major, holds a doctorate in literature and is a published poet. In her Make Believe: Creativity and Interpretation class, she aims to have students become familiar with the fine arts through poetry and plays, dramatization and scriptwriting, reading and researching the creative process, and sharpening their ability to observe and interpret human interactions. “The class is not a talent contest,” stated McNall. Grades are based on how fully a student completes class work and a portfolio. However, she said, “Students who had no idea they had the ability to do this work amaze themselves in this class.”

The class creatively explores issues raised by Farrer’s Human Cultural Diversity class such as cross-cultural examination of human interaction, group formation, gender issues, rites of passage, and symbolic classification. To explore gender issues, for example, students reversed male and female parts in a play they presented.

Farrer defined the retreat as an opportunity for the students to forge bonds with each other outside the usual confines of the classroom, enabling them to feel safe in exploring the personal and controversial issues that arise in the linked classes. “These are very hard-working and impeccable students,” she declared. “It is important to be interactive with them, because they know as much about teaching our classes as we do. I control the content, but the students control how the course unfolds.” Both of the linked courses, she said, give the students an opportunity to learn to think deeply, to argue with respect, to defend their ideas, to be perceptive, and to listen.

Francine Gair