Context
AG is my friend from back home in Chicago, Illinois. She was born in Joliet, Illinois and then moved to Chicago when she was five years old. She is of Mexican and Salvadoran descent. She attends university in Illinois and is part of a Latino founded sorority. I am a part of the same sorority here at USC. The name of our sorority was left out for anonymity purposes.
Text
DO (interviewer) : I think that being a part of a sorority in a way comes with its own sense of community and folklore, wouldn’t you agree?
AG: Yeah totally! I think I see my sorority sisters more than I see my own family *laughs.*
DO: I definitely agree. What do you think are some traditions or rituals or beliefs that we have that come with *name of sorority?*
AG: Hmmm. I don’t know. I feel like there’s a lot that other people not in it can think is specific to us. I know people always have a culty vibe to sorority *laughs*
AG: I think maybe strolling? I know that other non multicultural sororities definitely don’t stroll so I think it’s just POC orgs that stroll the way we do?
DO: Oh yeah! That’s a good example.
AG: And like. We all obviously have the national stroll that we all have to learn as part of our process. But then I think it’s cool that we all have like chapter strolls and stuff like that. You know? Like our chapter stroll is different than yours.
DO: It also can differ from class to class.
AG: Right. Like when I initiated with my class we danced to a certain song and now the new babies know that, that song is a stroll but for their celebration they had a completely different one. So I guess if we’re talking about culture there’s an example of how many little different communities we have even within our little community. If that makes sense.
Analysis
According to Oring, folklore implies some group of people who share something. Here the informant and I used our social groups to demonstrate how similar and different the same community can be when separated by some factor. Though her chapter is in Illinois and mine is in California, both have some essential elements. In terms of dances and performances, every new class has a show where they reveal themselves to their academic community, and during this, we have to perform a “stroll,” which is a dance. Regardless of where they are in the country, every member of our sorority knows the “National Stroll” and can all dance the same exact moves to the same songs. There are other rituals/traditional elements to these showcases that we all follow. However, as mentioned, we all also have our own chapter stroll. My stroll here at USC consists of different moves to another song than her Illinois chapter. As the informant mentioned, each new class that initiates can also have its own stroll that differs from the two already mentioned. These dances allow unity and sisterhood across all state borders and enough uniqueness to stand out and make a name for our chapters individually. Though we are technically the same community with shared folklore, we also have smaller communities with differing folklore within this larger one. This idea can also be applied to other groups, such as ethnic ones.