Rhys Evans wrote:
>Robert,
>Having grown up on Canada's West Coast, I would like to reinforce what
>you have said about lacrosse. I was absolutely gobsmacked to see what
>_we_ thought of as _our_ game being appropriated by a bunch of upper
>middle class English snobs/professional American jocks/whatever.
*****John Seabrook notes that:
Box Lacrosse was indirectly brought about by Montreal Dentist William
Beers who laid down rules for field lacrosse in the 1860's. The
original rule book stated 'No Indian must play for a white club,
unless previously agreed upon' - a blatantly segregationist rule. Shut
out of the field game Box Lacrosse was played by Native Americans (but
developed by three white promoters) in the 1930's looking to make
money out Ice Hockey rinks during the summer.
Lacrosse was originally appropriated from Native Americans by white
settlers in Canada........
>Wondering what purpose such a game might have amongst academics and
>middle-class professional sports people makes me think that one aspect
>of what we have here is an appropriation of working-class authenticity
>-- the use of formerly working-class signifiers like denim jeans, blues
>music or Doc Maartins boots by the hegemonic class fractions.
>Distinction indeed! As one who has very little time for commercialised
>sports, i frankly find this locker-room -- sorry, coffee-room talk --
>rather off-putting. It is almost as if the speakers are desperately
>brandishing symbols to show that they are not elite, not privileged,
>and using it to hide the cultural capital (=power) which they mobilise
>every day in the course of their work.
It is interesting to see how different nationals view the
same sport. The image of lacrosse in the UK has been, to an extent,
shaped by popular children's fiction such as Enid Blyton's Mallory
Towers/St Clares school stories. I even remember seeing St Trinians
films on the TV as a child with the 'gels' brandishing lacrosse
sticks....
As for desperately brandishing symbols.....I find that the leisure
pursuits practised (appropriated?) by the 'intellectual' middle-classes such
as opera, classical music, haute cuisine, wine appreciation just as off-putting
as some seem to find sport. The rejection of sport in favour of other
pursuits could be partly explained by the amount of cultural capital an
individual ascribes to competing leisure pursuits. Is it fashionable
to be against sport, now that we have reached stauration point?
I find it interesting that the practice of sport (any sport?) provokes
disgust in some and rapture in others. It is almost as if intellect
and sporting ability are now mutually exclusive.......
Steve
>But of course, that is rather extreme of me. Certainly there is an
>attraction to losing oneself in physicality, teamwork and being
>successful at it. And of course, the above analysis operates on the
>level of the collective, not the individual -- let's not get caught in
>the ecological fallacy here.
>Still, i always found lacrosse to be brutish, punishing and extremely
>violent. How strange to find it appearing in the context of academic
>geography....
regards
rhys evans
****************
note new address:
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R Evans, School for Policy Studies
8 Priory Rd., Bristol BS8 1TZ
(0117 9546984)
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..................................................
Steven Cummins, MRC Research Student
MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit,
6 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow, G12 8RZ
Tel: (0141) 357 3949 ext 248 Fax: (0141) 337 2389
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Http://www.msoc-mrc.gla.ac.uk
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