Hazing

I'm not sure if it is called hazing here in the UK or not, but there have been news stories of it happening with new recruits in the army. Several privates at one garrison ended up 'commiting suicide' after suffering bullying and other humiliations. There is an ongoing government investigation to determine whether the deaths were suicides as a result of emotional distress caused, or actual murders/manslaughters caused during the 'hazing' acts. Shocking really.

Is it possible that hazing originated in the upper class English schools?
In the USA it happens in the military, highschools and teams of several sports.
It is so disgusting that it has been condemned by the authorities but it still happens.

I know that hazing is a fact of life in English public school--and has been for centuries.

I'm reading a memoir by Jacques Pepin, My Life in the Kitchen. He describes as a 13-year-old apprentice being dispatched from restaurant to restaurant, criss-crossing the small market town, in pursuit of a mythical chicken deboning machine.

Certainly through Western Europe (and the U.S.) hazing of apprentices and beginners has always been a source of entertainment for the "betters" of the apprentices and beginners.

noddy, that sounds harmless compared to what I read here. There seems to be mostly violence in American school hazings.hazing---

Hazing is especially ruthless in the Russian army. Dozens, if not hundreds of recruits die every year. Thats why there is an immense dodging-rate - you'll do everything you can to avoid the draft.

Means those without money, education or connections are overrepresented in the army, though. Plus, Russian military service is long, pay is so low that soldiers in the provinces sometimes have to rely on packages from home (or extortion) for food, top-down authority is ruthless (forget about psychological counselors or ombudsmen) - and you can be sent to Chechnya any moment. Perhaps its no wonder.

No, I wouldnt guess hazing was anything typical American or English.

Here in the Netherlands, its the student fraternities that do the hazing. Every two or three years, someone gets killed or badly hurt in some particular sadistic stint. Big publicity, frats promise to watch out better, then it starts again.

Haze

Long before fraternal organizations, hazing was the practice of keeping the crew working all hours of the day or night, whether necessary or not, in order to deprive them of sleep and to make them generally miserable. In the 19th century, many captains used this practice to assert their authority. Hazing has come to mean the initiation of a newcomer to a group by humiliating and harassing him or her, thereby asserting the authority of the group.

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/538/84272

Hazing, in it's original form was a test of courage, strength and devotion. Most tribal cultures had some form of "hazing" ritual for a young male to be accepted as a "man" so the tradition is probably as old as mankind itself.

In recent years people have forgotten (or ignored!)the original intent and turned it into a compitition of outragous acts so they could "out do" their rivals.

fishin' - looks like your avatar has been to a hazing incident

Those frat parties are hell I tell ya!

And, it is that time of year God please have patience with those poor drunken fools

I'll be very surprised if this area makes it to mid-June without a teenaged driving fatality.

The sap is rising, but the saps should not have access to alcohol and horsepower.

Actually, hazing originated around 1,300,000 BC when one of our earliest ancestors started the first food club and the prerequisit for joining was being able to walk upright for a mile or more through the plains of the Serengeti. The inferior creatures died off whereas those most resembling modern man survived. This was also the start of evolution to our present day selves. You see?