Adam Slotnick 1 August 6, 2012

The Anthropology of Sport: Olympic Analyses

Sport remains a fringe research area within cultural anthropology. There is a fairly robust amount of research in our sister field of sociology. London based SAGE Publications prints the Journal of Sports & Social Issues (monthly) and International Review for the Sociology of Sport (bimonthly). There are no compatible anthropological journals. The preliminary American Anthropological Associations annual meeting lists 16 sessions under the sport key word. Some of them appear to have a very tangential relationship with sports. Yet, the anthropological study of sport is a holistic field. Harvard biological anthropologist Daniel Liebermans research into endurance running has earned him recognition as one of the founders of the barefoot running movement. Archaeologists help us to understand the ball games of Mesoamerican societies and my own research has examined sociolinguistics within sports. Niko Besnier and Susan Brownells forthcoming article Sport, Modernity and the Body in the Annual Review of Anthropology gives impetus for anthropologists to engage in sports research. Ethnography is an important tool in this endeavor. Cultural anthropology has a unique opportunity to enhance the field of sports studies. The Olympics are currently captivating billions worldwide. While the Olympics showcase the best professionals and amateurs in media sports, the Olympic platform offers the opportunity to address contemporary cultural issues. Besnier and Brownell articulate the importance of sport in anthropology: Sport provides a novel angle for the investigation of fundamental questions in contemporary anthropology and ethnography could contribute to understanding the social problems in sport (Besnier and Brownell 2012:454). Cultural issues such as racism, female inequality, national identity in a globalized environment, unequal access

Adam Slotnick 2 to sport facilities and disability in a modernizing world can all be examined through the lens of the 30th Olympiad. I will utilize Besnier and Brownells paper as a basis for analyzing particular issues highlighted by the Olympics during the next few weeks.

Sample Research Questions How do viewers identify with athletes representing their nation? How do athletes negotiate multiple nationalities? How do national rivalries form? Are they more intense in particular sports? Is the number of athletes representing a nation and its medal count proportional to its population? Did any athlete refuse to compete against an athlete from other nations? Do national religious minority viewers identify with athletes of their faith? Are women allowed to compete in the same sports as men? Are men allowed to compete in the same sports as women? Are men allowed to compete with women? How does income affect athletic participation? How has the inclusion of disabled athletes among their able bodied peers affected participants and viewers? Will the Paralympic Games receive more coverage in the US due to the increasing number of disabled military veterans competing? How effective are the founding Olympic ideals? Can sport be used for development and peace? How is the Olympian body portrayed and received?

The author is an anthropology graduate student at Florida Atlantic University of Boca Raton. His main interest involves the intersection of the anthropologies of sport and the body. One chapter of his Masters thesis involves examining the Ironman Triathlon M Dot tattoo using sociolinguist Dell Hymes S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G. model.

Adam Slotnick 3 References Besnier, Niko and Susan Brownell 2012 Sport, Modernity and the Body. Annual Review of Anthropology (Reviews in Advance) 41:443-59.