Context:

The informant attends the University of South Carolina, which has a nationally ranked women’s basketball team. In the past few years, the team has won the NCAA championship multiple times. The informant has witnessed campus wide celebrations each year they win.

Text:

The informant recounts that if the USC women’s basketball team wins the national championship at the end of the season, crowds gather to jump in the fountain outside Thomas Cooper library to celebrate. Hundreds of people gather to celebrate immediately after the game is won.

Analysis:

This celebration is a ritual that helps create a sense of communitas since the entire student body joins in to cement a social bond through their sports team’s victory. Jumping into the fountain serves as a rite of passage that transforms a mere fountain outside a library into a place with communal meaning. This tradition turns the team’s success into a part of the entire university’s identity to create a collective sense of pride and belonging.