Sports. An activity that transcends culture and allows for performance outside of what was previously imagined. Athletes in both Greek and modern worlds have exhibited fraudulent behavior as a means to get ahead in athletic competition as well as the activities leading up to the competition. This fraudulent behavior has many times been attributed to the intense pressure that these athletes face. Pressures such as providing for family, making fans proud, and creating a legacy all existed back in the ancient Greece and still play a huge role in athletics today. These pressures have sometimes lavished unrealistic expectations on these athletes, causing some to look at the future with an “end justifies the means” outlook. Factors such as the role …show more content…
First being adopted in Argentina and Uruguay, it eventually spread to Brazil in the late 1800’s. Influenced by earlier Latin American developments, soccer later began to develop in many other regions of the continent, such as Chile, Bolivia and Venezuela. In Chile, for example, the different opinions on sporting culture between the cities of Valparaiso and Santiago contrasted two differing attitudes regarding the European roots of the game. In Santiago, “soccer was celebrated through the mestizo character of city and nation, which portrayed the mixing of Native American and European culture to a more authentic version of Chilean identity” (Taylor). In contrast, Valparaiso embraced the European roots of soccer, viewing the game as a indication of the modernization and sophistication of the city. These two different viewpoints on the interaction of soccer and culture help to provide a point of understanding on how nationalism and pride affect the beliefs on sport. On one hand, Valparaiso’s view on the modernization of Chilean culture presents a willingness to adopt a foreign activity in order to further sophisticate their culture, whereas Santiago’s view establishes a more strongly rooted belief in their authentic culture and viewed soccer as a means to advance their culture to create a more developed Chilean identity, rather than adopting the European outlook on …show more content…
His description of just going to run and “do his thing” exhibits how sports can put allow people to put their differences behind them in order to compete. By spending enormous amounts on the games as well as putting emphasis on the improvement of the athlete experience, the olympics were extremely successful for the Nazis and demonstrated one example of how the spread of sport can be governed by political influence.
We also see this political influence factor that governs the cross-cultural spread of sports in Ancient Greece and Rome. Alexander the great’s mighty conquests throughout Europe and the middle east came with a spread of Greek culture that included sports and other entertainment. This military endeavor proved how the spread of culture and sports can come about through conquests and the political influence that comes with military action. After Alexander the great’s empire fell and the Roman empire was developed, a sense of nationalism and pride from the Greeks in Rome put pressure on the Roman government to form Greek leagues in Rome. The Roman government felt that it “had a vested interest in sponsoring entertainments, such as sports, that brought people together.” This vested interest in sponsoring sports stemmed from the belief that sports and entertainment could, in fact, act as a political vehicle for the Roman government. This vested interest
book (pg. 166) under the subtitle of “The “anomaly” of mass support for athletics”, Kyle discusses another authors work (D.M. Pritchard) that converses popular culture and popular attitudes about athletics were reflected in Old Comedy and speeches. Pritchard asserts that even though athletics preserved the wealthy and the privileged, the lower-class people still enthusiastically supported the athletes and athletics. He says that despite the non-elite Athenians seeing the rewards and privileges given to them, the lower-class people still identified with the athletes. Why? Spectators, assuming they themselves were former athletes, still carried a passion for athletics that did not die out when they became of age to stop playing games and start going to work for their families or going to war for their city-state. So, since they can not continue their athletic careers, they look to those
As he stated, Brazil is known culturally as a footballing (soccer) nation and as a nation of fun, the lifestyle of the Brazilian people is one of leisure and pleasure, which was intergraded into the way they play soccer. This showed how the game can be impacted by the culture of the people and how that might the global scale of the sport. If you take a look, at the United States, you will see that soccer has long struggled to be relevant. We can argue that soccer irrelevance in the United States is not just due to the popularity of other sports, such as football (American) and Basketball, but it is also due to the different cultural that lies in the
Civic implications were also apparent in ancient Greek athletics. The ancient world was one of constant conflict and political turmoil, and it was necessary for each city-state to possess a strong military in order to preserve their autonomy.
Since 776 BCE, the Olympics have been a way for people of different cultures to come together and compete in friendly competition. In 1892 the first modern Olympics were held in Athens, although it had been over a thousand years since the last game it still had brought together an assortment of different religions and ethnic groups together. Many factors shaping the Olympic Games reflect the changes that have taken place in our world since the last game in 393 CE in Greece such changes include woman’s suffrage, global economy, world wars, and proving competency.
Soccer differs in Spain and in America when it comes to attendances and passion for the sport, play style, and the way their players are shaped into professions. The United States is said to play a hybrid form of soccer compared to hispanic countries (Parrish). American soccer athletes are typically taught to emphasize conditioning and possession. Secondly, Americans and Hispanics’ passion for the sport are extremely different from one another. The people in Hispanic countries live for soccer, as they are devoted, passionate, and loyal to the teams. Contrarily in America, football, basketball, and baseball trump soccer making it only the fourth most attended and watched event. No matter how the sport is played or how many people attend the events, soccer is well liked in both the United States and Hispanic
Franklin Foer the author of How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization is an important contributor of the small topic of the how soccer is related to the world. Foer from the New Republic who writes from time to time in the well known newspaper of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal had traveled around the world especially the continent of Europe, Asia, North and South America. Going from the topic of why the Islam religion, Islamic law, and religious paramilitary militia prohibits the passionate, die-hard Islamic women fans; from attending and/or watching soccer games and then partying hard like the men after the game if their country or favorite club wins. To the topic of how America relates to soccer when the middle class accepted this sport because of the little violence that they thought the sport contained and to how some Americans support writers such as Tom Weir from USA Today’s “that hating soccer is more American than apple pie, driving a pickup, or spending Saturday afternoons channel surfing with the remote control” (Foer 240). The majority of Americans that support this quote are the lower class, liberals, majority of sports reporters, and narrow minded Americans. These topics and/or chapters really show how soccer is creating more globalization around the world especially with Islamic women getting rid of their traditions and trying new things such as showing their passion for soccer. In addition, America is trying to pass its apple pie and watching American Football on a Sunday to watching beautiful game of soccer. How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization is really divided into three groups; the first being the rivalries between clubs and human beings, sec...
Research guided by conflict theory generally falls into the following categories: 1) studies of how athletes become alienated from their own bodies; 2) studies of how sports can be used to coerce and control people; 3) studies of sports and the development of commercialism in society; 4) studies of sports and various forms of nationalism and militarism; and 5) studies of sports and racism and sexism. (Coakley, 1998) In the book, Meggyesy provided examples of each of these categories which occurred during his footba...
Many of the games we play today is of ancient origin and even then provided mass entertainment of fans. In the beginning, ancient sports like the Olympic Games started out as rituals to honor gods or a leader and later developed into public events with festivals that surrounded the games (Jewell, Moti, & Coates, 2012). Today festivals are still seen during the Olympics Games, pre-game and post-game activities are held for NFL games, and fan’s host parties on game day surrounding favorite sporting events. Interesting, ancient sporting events began as a way to help individuals prepare for warfare. Individuals in ancient spots competed to help prepare themselves for military fighting, t...
Large questions still remain about the role of soccer in today’s world. Why do people in Europe and abroad become so dedicated to their teams, over all other cultural factors like politics, clubs, and organizations? How does soccer affect Italian and Roman political allegiances, and how does the commitment of each team’s fans affect the Roman urban space, the policies and reactions of the Italian government, and each other? By uncovering and defining the importance of soccer in Rome, I am arguing that Roman soccer fans are not only divided by team colors and name, but also by geography within the city, political allegiances, and social differences. I am also arguing that the importance of soccer represents far more than an interest in a game, but a representation of all that a Roman citizen, as well as the majority of all Europeans, live for and love.
Kaplan, Daniel. "The Soccer Theory of Globalization." Aidwatchers.com. Aid Watchers, 15 July 2009. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
Football, or soccer, was brought to Brazil by Charles Miller from England. The game became popularized during the Vargas era, where teams and clubs were formed by communities to compete. Vargas believed soccer united people of different racial groups, classes, and political parties and brought together people of different backgrounds to share the love of the game. Soccer created a sense of Brazilian nationalism, for members of all different communities shared the common passion of the sport. On discussing soccer as a unifying force in the Vargas-era, Kittleson stated in “The Country of Football”, “This way of thinking about soccer fit in with the centralizing and nationalist aims of the Vargas government. In a May Day speech in 1938, Vargas proclaimed “A country is not just the conglomeration of individuals in a territory; it is, principally, a unity of race, a unity of language, a unity of national thinking”. Embracing soccer served as a means of fostering this unity, as well as attempting to control it” (Kittleson, Chapter 1, 50). Vargas highly valued this notion of
With each passing civilization and the era it’s [its] people lived in, one can find a great deal about the times by examining an area that is not often thought of. That area is in regards to sports. The ancient Mayans had arenas, the Greeks helped initiate the Olympics, and the Romans had bloody matches between gladiators in the Colosseum. These sports and games often reveal to us what was occurring outside the playing field and arenas, into the political arenas and clashes between the classes. Examining the history of rugby throughout Europe, particularly in Great Britain, allows one the opportunity to see how the changes throughout society’s values, norms, and principles are mirrored by the evolution of the game of rugby from the mid-nineteenth century up to World War I.
In return, athletes expected to produce medals in the competition. Also, sports also use as a tool for political and diplomatic in gaining popularity and spreading different agenda. For instances, historically sports and politics associated in Ancient Greek, the Turner movement development in the 19th century of German states, the rise of Sokol movement and the International Olympic Committee links to sports and politics. Thus, these developments created war without weapons (Streak, 2014). Karen
Sports throughout history have shown close ties and relations to values and cultures of a society. Sports and competition have adapted and grown as the world and people have grown and developed. Sports are often seen as simple consequence of the industrial revolution. The Impact of increased urbanization, better communication and transportation, as well as more time and income for specialization, all led to the creation of sports. (szymanski). In essence As the public sphere grew so did the concept of sport. (Szymanski). Even the impact colonization had on spreading sports, shows the congruence between the development of society and development of modern sports. What make sports very unique is that they always bring about a sense of culture
Introduction Today, the Olympic Games are the world's largest pageant of athletic skill and competitive spirit. They are also displays of nationalism, commerce and politics. Well-known throughout the world the games have been used to promote understanding and friendship among nations, but have also been a hotbed of political disputes and boycotts. The Olympic games started thousands of years ago and lasted over a millennium.. The symbolic power of the Games lived on after their demise, and came to life again as the modern Olympic Games being revived in the last century. Both the modern and Ancient Olympics have close similarities in there purpose and in there problems.