From: Konkin, Barry
To: R Evans, School for Policy Studies
Subject: Re: Lacrosse is an elitist sport?
Date: Friday, June 04, 1999 9:20AM
Rhys:
it's interesting to talk of the appropriation of certain activities by
groups such as the so-called 'elites' of the Ivy League schools on the east
Coast of the US (Harvard, Cornell, etc.) It sounds like a similar
demographic has adopted the sport in England.
I'd like to point out that in certain places, while lacrosse is a working
class sport, in my experience, in Saanich (a then-agricultural community
evolving into a bedroom community) and Esquimalt (the site of the largest
naval base on the West Coast of Canada, and very much a working-class
municipality) on Vancouver Island, it is a strongly Aboriginal game. These
two communities both have at least two large reserves within their
boundaries. The youth box lacrosse matches I watched were often clearly
influenced/directed by racial interactions, as the aboriginal youth often
took the opportunity to 'give back' to the white youths they faced on the
court.
In other communities such as Surrey, the Indo-Canadian population has begun
to produce good lacrosse players as well, but in a strongly suburban
'bedroom community', rather than a working class environment. The
Indo-Canadian community in Surrey developed around an agricultural base, as
any new immigrants to Canada became farmers in the community. However, this
has changed dramatically in the last decade, as the Indo-Canadian community
has become strongly urbanized.
I think that to define a sport such as lacrosse in polarized terms such as
'working class' or 'elitist' is simplistic, and we should perhaps consider
these activities along a range of 'labels', recognizing that the locale in
which we examine activities such as sport exerts a strong influence on its
character.
Barry Konkin
Planning & Development Department
City of Surrey
Surrey BC
Canada
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From: R Evans, School for Policy Studies
To: Robert Campbell
Cc: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Lacrosse is an elitist sport?
Date: Friday, June 04, 1999 6:51AM
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.
It is too funny to think of lacrosse as being played by varsity or
other teams. What's next? Designer face masks? High tech jock
protectors? Non=-contact lacrosse? I grew up in a very poor community
and box lacrosse (played indoors in a dry hockey arena or community
hall) was a community sport. If i remember right the teams were named
things like New Westminster Salmonbellies (or was that the hockey team
only?). Our team was the Bridgeview Bulldogs (usually changed to
Bridgeview Bastards). Looking back, the game occupied a similar place
in our society that `hurling'(Sp?) does in Eire -- it was an extremely
rough game, with lots of contact --watch out for that stick! -- which
prepared boys for working-class lives in jobs which constantly hurt
their bodies -- sawmill work, truckdrivers, labourers, etc. The game
was resolutely amateur, even when semi-pro. And the teams definately
functioned as nodes of community spirit/identity.
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.
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
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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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