Anthropology Of Sports Essay

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CHAPTER TWO

Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
This chapter provides background information on the research topic. The first section provides a general overview of the anthropology of sports with sub-headings of anthropologists and their contributions to the study of sport and the body in the anthropology of sport. The second section provides a description of sport studies. The third section of the chapter sheds light on the meaning and application of sport. The fourth heading provides literature on relevant subjects to the anthropology of sports and sport studies. Finally, the fifth heading provides concluding thoughts for the chapter.

2.2 General Overview of the Anthropology of Sports
The anthropology of sport refers to “the application …show more content…

Adopting an anthropological questions, researchers frame fundamental questions around a wide range of theoretical models (Coakley and Dunning 2004:150). Researchers in the anthropology of sport tend to employ a distinctive framework within which to address among other things, specialised problems like gender and sport, sport and ritual, and violence in human society (Blanchard 1995:23). The anthropology of sport is primarily a behavioral science closely related to cultural anthropology (Blanchard 1995:23) and tied to the knowledge that sport is an institution and a component of culture (Coakley and Dunning 2000:151). Cultural anthropologists believe that play, sports, and physical activity are universal features of cultures, past and present. Following this rationale, the study of sport should enable researchers to access the quality and nature of social problems of particular cultures (Blanchard 1995; Chandler et al …show more content…

Tylor (1832-1917) was an evolutionist preoccupied with knowing the origins of things, and finding out the first examples of major attributes or traits (Gale 2008). He believed that sport could provide clues about prehistoric culture contact (Blanchard 1995:9-10).
Before the 1950s, sports researchers made important anthropological contributions. They wrote about sport among small scale societies, and pre-literate people. During this period, there were few occasions that articles on sport appeared in anthropology journals (Blanchard 1995; Chandler et al 2007). Early researchers in the field like Stewart Culin in1907 (also referred to as the “game scholar… in the field of anthropology,”) published his work titled Games of the North American Indians, in the the Bereau of American Ethnology. His work was published by Government Printing Office in Washinton D.C. (Dyck 2004). Karl Wuele in 1925 (a German scholar who did an ethnologic study of the origin and development of sports) had his work published in the Oceania journal (Coakley and Dunning 2002:146; Blanchard 1995:14). Other published works include Raymond Firth’s (1931) study of A Dart Match in Tikopia, his work was published in the Oceania (Dyck 2004). Lesser’s (1933) work

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