Topic: Anthropology of Sport

Catalog description

This course considers sports from a cross-cultural perspective. Particular interest will be paid to the ways that sports interact with and reflect other aspects of culture, such as economics, politics, religion, identity, gender, and change. These inter-relationships will be examined in case studies. We will analyze these main issues using the theoretical frameworks that help anthropologists understand cultural variation. We will look at how people behave and think within these areas by seeing how other peoples (including ourselves) creatively model their world in a framework thought of as Sport. Students will be expected to apply these issues and theories to their analysis of various cultures in order to understand the variety of ways of being.