El bizutage: ritual y reproducción social en la enseñanza superior francesa

Abstract

The author analyzes the bizutage, a ritualized tradition of raggings that until recently characterized a particular sector of the French university system, that of the "prépas" and the ''Grandes Ecoles". After presenting the defining traits and history of this education system, and interpreting the bizutage´s symbolic and social components —space, time, actors, language, trials and punishments—, the author argues that the bizutage truly constituted a rite of initiation, with its three well defined parts: separation, margin and incorporation. The rite facilitated the social reproduction of a relationship of domination —that expressed in the degrees of the Grandes Ecoles— and the perpetuation of an élite. It also created a "distinction". The public debate about the recent prohibition of the bizutage reveals the extent to which the true nature of the Grandes Ecoles, i.e. their social elitism, is concealed. The selection rules at the Grandes Ecoles are presented as based upon the "natural" criteria of intellectual ability and individual effort.