Greek Athletics and the Genesis of Sport

Gold, Barbara K.; Sansone, David

doi:10.2307/4350704

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Hamilton and Zuk, 1982;Zahavi andZahavi, 1975, 1997). Moreover, Sansone (1988) connected the ability to sacrifice energy with increased status and reproductive opportunities, anticipating Miller's (2000) and deBlock and Dewitte's (2009) ideas about the role of intersexual sexual selection in the evolution of sports.…”

Section: Cultural Hypotheses About the Evolution Of Sportmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Ruminations about the origins and functions of sport have typically focused on its cultural components (e.g., Ashe, 1988;Carroll, 2000;Guttmann, 2004b;Huizinga, 1949;McComb, 2004;Roberts, Arth, and Bush, 1959;Sansone, 1988;Szymanski, 2006). Cultural hypotheses about sports are primarily descriptive, non-mutually exclusive, and fill several categories: non-utilitarian (e.g., Guttmann, 2004a;Huizinga, 1949), cultic (e.g., Brasch, 1970), ritualistic (e.g., Baker, 1982, Marxist (Guttmann, 2004a;Hoberman, 1992), and cathartic (Lenzi, Bianco, Milazzo, Placidi, Catrogiovani, and Becherini, 1997).…”

Section: Cultural Hypotheses About the Evolution Of Sportmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cultural hypotheses about sports are primarily descriptive, non-mutually exclusive, and fill several categories: non-utilitarian (e.g., Guttmann, 2004a;Huizinga, 1949), cultic (e.g., Brasch, 1970), ritualistic (e.g., Baker, 1982, Marxist (Guttmann, 2004a;Hoberman, 1992), and cathartic (Lenzi, Bianco, Milazzo, Placidi, Catrogiovani, and Becherini, 1997). Sansone's (1988) hypothesis that sport represents a ritual sacrifice of energy by those with the greatest amount of energy to sacrifice comes closest to the modern biological concept of an honest display of physical quality (cf. Hamilton and Zuk, 1982;Zahavi andZahavi, 1975, 1997).…”

Section: Cultural Hypotheses About the Evolution Of Sportmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…-4-While the connections between sports, hunting, and warfare seem clear, there are a few discrepancies. A satisfactory theory of sport should explain (1) why the cultural importance of sport increased at the same time the need for men to use sport to train for hunting and warfare decreased, (2) why men pay such close attention to athletic contests, and (3) the diversification of sports (Sansone, 1988).…”

Section: Hunting Warfare and Sportmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Evolution of Sport

2012

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Sports have received little attention from evolutionary biologists. I argue that sport began as a way for men to develop the skills needed in primitive hunting and warfare, then developed to act primarily as a lek where athletes display and male spectators evaluate the qualities of potential allies and rivals. This hypothesis predicts that (1) the most popular modern male sports require the skills needed for success in male-male physical competition and primitive hunting and warfare; (2) champion male athletes obtain high status and thereby reproductive opportunities in ways that parallel those gained by successful primitive hunters and warriors; (3) men pay closer attention than do women to male sports so they can evaluate potential allies and rivals; and (4) male sports became culturally more important when opportunities to evaluate potential allies and rivals declined as both the survival importance of hunting and the proportion of men who experience combat decreased. The characteristics of primitive and modern sports are more consistent with these predictions than those generated by intersexual sexual selection theories of sport.

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Section: Cultural Hypotheses About the Evolution Of Sportmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Cultural Hypotheses About the Evolution Of Sportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cultural Hypotheses About the Evolution Of Sportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hunting Warfare and Sportmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Evolution of Sport

2012

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Cultural Performance and Sport Mrscots

Slowikowski

1993

Journal of Sport and Social Issues

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Various arguments against Native American mascots have used assumptions based on similar critiques such as those connected to discourse about colonialism, racism and white hegemony (e.g., Hewitt, 1991; Schultz, 1991; Monaghan, 1992). While these criticisms are very justified, in this essay, the cultural roots, symbolism and performance of sport mascots will be considered as they have been articulated to the symbolic production of cultural narratives such as "good luck"; "authenticity"; and "nostalgia." First, classicist David Sansone's (1988) ideas concerning the origin of sport will be discussed as they may be connected to present-day sport mascot rituals. The essay then uses the symbolic anthropological construct of "cultural performance" to explore the ideologies of sport mascots in today's culture.

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The Olympics and philosophy

2013

Choice Reviews Online

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Greek Athletics and the Genesis of Sport

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

On the Evolution of Sport

On the Evolution of Sport

Cultural Performance and Sport Mrscots

The Olympics and philosophy

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