Description
Book SynopsisFew activities bring together physicality, emotions, politics, money, and morality as dramatically as sport. In Brazil's stadiums or parks in China, on Cuba's baseball diamonds or rugby fields in Fiji, human beings test their physical limits, invest emotional energy, bet money, perform witchcraft, and ingest substances, making sport a microcosm of what life is about. The Anthropology of Sport explores not only what anthropological thinking tells us about sports, but also what sports tell us about the ways in which the sporting body is shaped by and shapes the social, cultural, political, and historical contexts in which we live. Core themes discussed in this book include the body, modernity, nationalism, the state, citizenship, transnationalism, globalization, and gender and sexuality.
Trade Review"The three authors of
The Anthropology of Sport have written their up-to-date survey of anthropology and sport in the style of an introductory textbook. The trio covers a basic range of topics in eight chapters, each of which could function as the essential reading for a lecture . . . Major thinkers and concepts are introduced in a deliberated, easy-to-understand manner." * Pacific Affairs *
"Brownell, Besnier, and Carter’s work is a new text in a yet undefined field – it may be the start of something new. If interested in the global nature of sport today,
The Anthropology of Sport is a necessary read." * Foucault News *
"Besnier, Brownell and Carter . . . follow a distinct anthropological line of thinking, advocating a wide application of the term 'sport' that takes into account its various local, daily and emic conceptions in the context of globalization." * Paideuma *
"This is a well‐written and accessible text. . . . The book can stimulate new research in a highly fertile but understudied area of anthropology." * American Ethnologist *
"A foundational text. . . . The writing is clear, the style consistent, and the presentation informative and absorbing." * Journal of Anthropological Research *
"Deeply insightful. . . . This volume can function as an important point of reference and source of inspiration for myriad anthropological research projects to come." * Social Anthropology *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 • Sport, Anthropology, and History
2 • Sport, Colonialism, and Imperialism
3 • Sport, Health, and the Environment
4 • Sport, Social Class, Race, and Ethnicity
5 • Sport and Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
6 • Sport, Cultural Performance, and Mega-events
7 • Sport, Nation, and Nationalism
8 • Sport in the World System
Epilogue: Sport for Anthropology
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
