This entry is slightly overdue. I had a million thoughts running through my head right after I finished reading Alexandra Robbin's Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, The Ivy League and Hidden Paths of Power. However, I happened to finish reading it during finals week, when I had no time to think about anything other than advertising and graphic design. Now that I've had plenty of time to collect myself and my thoughts, plus the fact that i've been snowed in all day, I can now revert to writing about things that I actually enjoy, not advertising proposals for various struggling products.
It had always been my ambition in life to attend a college that was somewhat prestigious, but I knew that it was never in the cards for me to go Ivy, since I do not have the self-discipline requires to achieve such a level of intelligence. I confess, I used to watch Gilmore Girls avidly. Any Gilmore Girls fan would know that Rory Gilmore's dream in life was to attend Harvard, but she ended up attending Yale instead. In Rory's career at Yale (in which she was a journalism major- which is not a major at Yale. Continuity error.) she was a staff writer for The Yale Daily News. In one episode, she wrote an investigative piece on Yale's infamous Skull and Bones society (and we are led to believe that she was the first person to attempt to do so...lies) in which she took part in a formal outing of the Skull and Bones society. This is probably my favorite episode of the whole series. After reading Pledged- The Secret Lives of Sororities, also by Robbins, I had to purchase Secrets of the Tomb.
Secrets of the Tomb is a very versatile book. It begins with the history of Yale itself as a university, then goes on to tell the history and culture of Yale's infamous secret societies (which, I was surprised to discover how many there were), and finally discusses why Skull and Bones is the most well known of these societies, and what we can learn from the society.
Skull and Bones is interesting because although the society itself is not inherently secret (current members are often known as they are required to spend a great deal of time in the club's house, known as the "tomb."), what secrets they are keeping and why is what intrigues most onlookers to attempt to see in the tomb. George W. Bush, a former Skull and Bones member (known as "Bonesman") once was asked about Skull and Bones in an interview in which he responded, "it's secret...so secret I can't say anymore."
Skull and Bones, like most other societies at Yale, hand picks and "taps" students in the Junior class, whom they feel is going to be the most successful. The laundry list of Bones alum in mind blowing- of course aside from our lame-duck George W. Bush, alum include his father, George Herbert Walker Bush, his former political opponent, John Kerry, William Taft, Percy Rockefeller, Harold Stanley (of Morgan Stanley investments), countless financial tycoons as well as upwards of 3 former secretaries of state. The number of Bonesman who have held political positions is not surprising at all, considering the trait of Bonesman to hire and appoint their fellow brothers to positions needed in their field of work.
The bond between Bonesman is so strong because of their traditions that have yet to change throughout the years, despite their declining prevalence and addition of women to the society. Since Skull and Bones is a Senior Society, Bonesman spend much time in the tomb during their senior year of Yale. Bonesman meet on Thursday and Sunday nights for extravagant dinners, which alumni may join at any time, prepared by 2 people employed by the society. After these dinners, the Bonesman share with each other their life stories - delving and prying into every detail of each others lives, from childhood to present, even including each others sexual encounters. Of course, anything said in the tomb, never leaves the tomb.
Like the things that occur inside the tomb, the tomb itself is also a mystery to the outside world. Rumor has it that it can be reached from any point on the Yale campus from a series of underground tunnels. Non-Bones members are not allowed inside the tomb. Many believe that the bones of important historical figures are contained inside the tomb, hence the name of the society. This is most notably speculated in the case of the missing bones of Native American chief Geronimo. In 1918, 3 members of Skull and Bones, one of them being Prescott Bush, reportedly stole the remains of Geronimo from Fort Sill in Oklahoma. Members and former members remain silent on the matter, others speculate that the alleged remains in the tomb are fake, while some maintain that they are used in each year's initiation ritual.
I think what interests people most isn't the prestige of Skull and Bones or the history. It is the question of why they need to be classified as "secret." What are they hiding? Is there something deeper to Skull and Bones beyond its connections and brotherhood? And most importantly, what are these rituals that members must maintain in order to earn the respect of the society. What separates Bones from your typical fraternity, besides its prestige?
Bones was once associated with the first formal fraternity in the country, Delta Kappa Epsilon. There is a DKE chapter at my school, that has arguably the best house on campus. Inside a giant brownstone castle-like structure, dark wood lines the walls and a room of tile and gold filigree is on the first floor. Rumor has it that the room was imported from Spain, specifically for the DKE house. If a fraternity can have this sort of ornamentation, what is inside the Bones tomb? In conjunction, through a period of pledging, fraternity members must earn their brothers respect through a series of tasks in order to be worthy to engage in the fraternity's secret rituals.
To what extent does Skull and Bones compare with a frat? Are these tasks more intense? More dangerous? More prestigious? If members of Skull and Bones are supposedly inheriting society's deepest, darkest secrets- must they endure society's deepest, darkest, endeavors?
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