Abstract
The article firstly presents a brief historical context of the University of Coimbra, depicting some of the outlines of its academic traditions. Among these are: practices of bullying and violence associated with freshmen initiation rituals, the so-called praxe, and the conflicts that have characterized the relationship between the student elite and the local community over the centuries. Then it explores possible connections between these rituals and multiple cultural and sociopolitical movements, including the question of the subalternization of women and the student movements against the dictatorial regime of Salazar-Caetano. Finally, it analyzes the most recent trends that the phenomenon has been acquiring in Portugal, often resulting in abuse, humiliation and violence in the wake of controversial and tragic cases. The culture of submission to power that most rituals promote seems to express a recent trend in society and the youth, where consumerist individualism is combined in a perverse way with mechanisms of evasion and unconditional surrender to disciplinary logic of a despotic nature.
Keywords
Praxe; academic tradition; students' movement; University of Coimbra; Portugal