Re: Football FINALLY makes sense..........
Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:45 am
And another, more recent article:
Everything You Wanted To Know About Football
But Were Afraid to Ask
By Peter Carlson
Washington Post
Sunday, February 6, 2005
Page D01
Today in Jacksonville, two tribes of huge, hulking men, clad in elaborate armor topped with colorful uniforms and helmets that mask their war-painted faces, will meet on a field of painted grass to beat, pummel, smash, maul and mug each other as 78,000 witnesses scream with joy.
Hmmmmm . . .
The two tribes, called "Eagles" and "Patriots," will attempt to invade each other's territory and carry an inflated pigskin across a magic white line. If they succeed, they will celebrate their triumph with elaborate ritual dances while a group of scantily clad women shake their buttocks, their breasts and brightly colored symbols of joy known as "pompoms."
Hmmmmm . . . interesting.
Before this ritual begins, there will be invocations of the blessings of the deity, songs in praise of the nation, displays of military might and the ceremonial tossing of a special coin. Outside the coliseum, which is named after a phone company, revelers -- many dressed in the uniforms of their favorite gladiators -- will prepare a great feast, grilling meats over open fires, drinking large quantities of intoxicating beverages and whipping themselves up into a frenzy of enthusiasm.
Hmmmmm . . . very interesting.
Meanwhile, across the nation, normal life will come to a virtual halt while the multitudes -- more than 140 million -- gather around their hearths to watch the ritual, which is the most popular televised event of every year. Even people with no interest in this gladiatorial battle will watch, eager to witness the debut of very short but very expensive films made in praise of mundane consumer products, such as fizzy sugar water or salted chips or medicines said to possess the power to cure impotence.
Hmmmmm . . . fascinating.
Indeed! The Super Bowl is a fascinating spectacle. It's the kind of complex cultural rite that American anthropologists would eagerly travel to Amazonia or Micronesia to witness and analyze and turn into fodder for high-toned, highbrow theorizing.
What about the Super Bowl? Surely, our anthropologists -- and other learned sages -- have witnessed this bizarre native ritual. But can they analyze it? Can they explain it? Do they have any theories?
The answers are yes, yes and yes.
You want theories? Boy, do they have theories. And if they don't happen to have a theory on hand, these friendly folks are happy to whip one up while you wait.
"The Super Bowl can be seen as a kind of religious event," says James Todd
"The Super Bowl is the most successful secular holiday to be invented for the American calendar since Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday," says Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television. "Super Bowl Sunday falls in the perfect place in the calendar. After the long January detox from the partying surrounding Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year's, the Super Bowl falls at just about the right time so people are ready to party again."
"For guys, it's male bonding," says anthropologist David Givens, author of "Love Signals," a study of the body language of courtship. "It's doing the same thing together, wearing the same hats or football jerseys. Social scientists call it isopraxism. It's a deeply reptilian psychology -- two lizards side by side doing push-ups together. It's based in the ancient reptilian part of the brain that we humans still have. It's very powerful."
"The Super Bowl is the reinforcement of everything American," says Keith Strudler, a communications professor at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. "It serves a functionalist purpose, reinforcing ideas of military strength, cultural supremacy and gender norms."
Football itself is a military metaphor, says Strudler. "Other sports are about scoring points -- football is about taking territory," he says. "And you have the generals running the show -- either the coach or the quarterback -- and before the game you have the flyover by the military jets."
Cheerleaders are shaking, shimmying symbols of traditional gender roles, Strudler says: "Men do the fighting and women do the cheering."
That's true, Givens says, but the men are fighting to impress the women. Football players are like male elks that smash their antlers into each other to prove their power to the females. "It's a courtship thing," he says. "And the women know in some part of their brain that it's all a display of strength for them."
When football players celebrate a touchdown with an elaborate end-zone dance, they are demonstrating what anthropologists call the "triumph display," Givens says. The classic triumph display seen in most sports is simply to jump up and raise your arms in victory. But football players have added a whole array of baroque flourishes, including using a pen to autograph the football, or theatrically pulling out a cell phone to make a call from the end zone.
"It has gone into all different kinds of gestures," Givens says, "but basically, it shows that you triumphed -- and part of it is to insult the guy you just knocked down."
"The end-zone dance is really quite similar to the strutting cock, celebrating the achievement of masculinity while emasculating the opponent," says Jason Antrosio, an anthropology professor at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. Antrosio teaches a course on the rituals of cockfighting and he sees many parallels to the Super Bowl.
"The stadium arena of the Super Bowl is basically a cockpit on steroids," Antrosio writes in an e-mail. "The Super Bowl is an example of what anthropologist Alan Dundes (in describing the cockfight) calls a 'thinly disguised symbolic homoerotic masturbatory phallic duel.' " [My added emphasis]
Wow! Now, that's some major-league anthropologizing, folks!
Dundes is a legendary professor of anthropology and folklore at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of dozens of books, including "Interpreting Folklore" and "The Evil Eye." He's so famous that there are two books of essays in praise of his work. Is it possible that Dundes has a theory about the Super Bowl?
We're in luck: He does!
"Now it's time for me to tell you my theory about football," he says.
In the background, there's a loud moaning sound.
"My wife is groaning," he explains. [Carolyn Dundes never quite accepted all of Alans Freudianizing, though she did always think it was great fun. JA]
"Relax," he tells her. "Relax."
His theory is not popular, he warns. When he revealed it years ago on the Phil Donahue show, he got death threats and some Berkeley alumni called for an official investigation.
Oh, boy! This is gonna be good!
The secret meaning of football, he says, is revealed in the language of football.
"The lingo is so sexual to score, to go all the way, deep penetration, jocks. You have all this sexual imagery. Plus the military language -- the blitz, the bomb, the sack, down in the trenches. It's all this stuff about pillage and rape."
He pauses for breath. In the background, his wife is grumbling audibly.
"The way the linemen line up is kind of an odd position, don't you think?" he continues. "You're basically presenting yourself to your own quarterback. . . . It all has to do with primates. When primates want to show dominance, they don't just snarl and growl. One male will mount the other male. You assert your domination by putting your opponents in a feminine position. And when the team is losing at halftime, the coach says, 'Get into the locker room, ladies.' "
Okay. Hold it, right there! That's quite enough of that kind of talk, Professor Pottymouth!
Sorry about that, folks. Pay no attention to that man. He's a professor at Berkeley, for crying out loud! His theory is obviously nutty. Even his wife hates it.
Listen: These football players are fine young men, role models for our nation's youth. And the Super Bowl is a great American ritual, wholesome fun for the whole family.
So just sit back and relax. Ignore all these silly theories. Just enjoy the game, you Saturnalian, reptile-brained, elk-headed, isopraxic, militaristic, sexist, homoerotic primates.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... 5Feb5.html
Everything You Wanted To Know About Football
But Were Afraid to Ask
By Peter Carlson
Washington Post
Sunday, February 6, 2005
Page D01
Today in Jacksonville, two tribes of huge, hulking men, clad in elaborate armor topped with colorful uniforms and helmets that mask their war-painted faces, will meet on a field of painted grass to beat, pummel, smash, maul and mug each other as 78,000 witnesses scream with joy.
Hmmmmm . . .
The two tribes, called "Eagles" and "Patriots," will attempt to invade each other's territory and carry an inflated pigskin across a magic white line. If they succeed, they will celebrate their triumph with elaborate ritual dances while a group of scantily clad women shake their buttocks, their breasts and brightly colored symbols of joy known as "pompoms."
Hmmmmm . . . interesting.
Before this ritual begins, there will be invocations of the blessings of the deity, songs in praise of the nation, displays of military might and the ceremonial tossing of a special coin. Outside the coliseum, which is named after a phone company, revelers -- many dressed in the uniforms of their favorite gladiators -- will prepare a great feast, grilling meats over open fires, drinking large quantities of intoxicating beverages and whipping themselves up into a frenzy of enthusiasm.
Hmmmmm . . . very interesting.
Meanwhile, across the nation, normal life will come to a virtual halt while the multitudes -- more than 140 million -- gather around their hearths to watch the ritual, which is the most popular televised event of every year. Even people with no interest in this gladiatorial battle will watch, eager to witness the debut of very short but very expensive films made in praise of mundane consumer products, such as fizzy sugar water or salted chips or medicines said to possess the power to cure impotence.
Hmmmmm . . . fascinating.
Indeed! The Super Bowl is a fascinating spectacle. It's the kind of complex cultural rite that American anthropologists would eagerly travel to Amazonia or Micronesia to witness and analyze and turn into fodder for high-toned, highbrow theorizing.
What about the Super Bowl? Surely, our anthropologists -- and other learned sages -- have witnessed this bizarre native ritual. But can they analyze it? Can they explain it? Do they have any theories?
The answers are yes, yes and yes.
You want theories? Boy, do they have theories. And if they don't happen to have a theory on hand, these friendly folks are happy to whip one up while you wait.
"The Super Bowl can be seen as a kind of religious event," says James Todd
at Santa Cruz. "People go to the game because they're participating in a ritual. . . . To actually wear the clothes of the players is important to people. Some people put war paint on their faces. It's a symbol of belonging to something."JesusA (imported) wrote: Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:42 am , an anthropologist at the University of California
"The Super Bowl is the most successful secular holiday to be invented for the American calendar since Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday," says Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television. "Super Bowl Sunday falls in the perfect place in the calendar. After the long January detox from the partying surrounding Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year's, the Super Bowl falls at just about the right time so people are ready to party again."
"For guys, it's male bonding," says anthropologist David Givens, author of "Love Signals," a study of the body language of courtship. "It's doing the same thing together, wearing the same hats or football jerseys. Social scientists call it isopraxism. It's a deeply reptilian psychology -- two lizards side by side doing push-ups together. It's based in the ancient reptilian part of the brain that we humans still have. It's very powerful."
"The Super Bowl is the reinforcement of everything American," says Keith Strudler, a communications professor at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. "It serves a functionalist purpose, reinforcing ideas of military strength, cultural supremacy and gender norms."
Football itself is a military metaphor, says Strudler. "Other sports are about scoring points -- football is about taking territory," he says. "And you have the generals running the show -- either the coach or the quarterback -- and before the game you have the flyover by the military jets."
Cheerleaders are shaking, shimmying symbols of traditional gender roles, Strudler says: "Men do the fighting and women do the cheering."
That's true, Givens says, but the men are fighting to impress the women. Football players are like male elks that smash their antlers into each other to prove their power to the females. "It's a courtship thing," he says. "And the women know in some part of their brain that it's all a display of strength for them."
When football players celebrate a touchdown with an elaborate end-zone dance, they are demonstrating what anthropologists call the "triumph display," Givens says. The classic triumph display seen in most sports is simply to jump up and raise your arms in victory. But football players have added a whole array of baroque flourishes, including using a pen to autograph the football, or theatrically pulling out a cell phone to make a call from the end zone.
"It has gone into all different kinds of gestures," Givens says, "but basically, it shows that you triumphed -- and part of it is to insult the guy you just knocked down."
"The end-zone dance is really quite similar to the strutting cock, celebrating the achievement of masculinity while emasculating the opponent," says Jason Antrosio, an anthropology professor at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. Antrosio teaches a course on the rituals of cockfighting and he sees many parallels to the Super Bowl.
"The stadium arena of the Super Bowl is basically a cockpit on steroids," Antrosio writes in an e-mail. "The Super Bowl is an example of what anthropologist Alan Dundes (in describing the cockfight) calls a 'thinly disguised symbolic homoerotic masturbatory phallic duel.' " [My added emphasis]
Wow! Now, that's some major-league anthropologizing, folks!
Dundes is a legendary professor of anthropology and folklore at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of dozens of books, including "Interpreting Folklore" and "The Evil Eye." He's so famous that there are two books of essays in praise of his work. Is it possible that Dundes has a theory about the Super Bowl?
We're in luck: He does!
"Now it's time for me to tell you my theory about football," he says.
In the background, there's a loud moaning sound.
"My wife is groaning," he explains. [Carolyn Dundes never quite accepted all of Alans Freudianizing, though she did always think it was great fun. JA]
"Relax," he tells her. "Relax."
His theory is not popular, he warns. When he revealed it years ago on the Phil Donahue show, he got death threats and some Berkeley alumni called for an official investigation.
Oh, boy! This is gonna be good!
The secret meaning of football, he says, is revealed in the language of football.
"The lingo is so sexual to score, to go all the way, deep penetration, jocks. You have all this sexual imagery. Plus the military language -- the blitz, the bomb, the sack, down in the trenches. It's all this stuff about pillage and rape."
He pauses for breath. In the background, his wife is grumbling audibly.
"The way the linemen line up is kind of an odd position, don't you think?" he continues. "You're basically presenting yourself to your own quarterback. . . . It all has to do with primates. When primates want to show dominance, they don't just snarl and growl. One male will mount the other male. You assert your domination by putting your opponents in a feminine position. And when the team is losing at halftime, the coach says, 'Get into the locker room, ladies.' "
Okay. Hold it, right there! That's quite enough of that kind of talk, Professor Pottymouth!
Sorry about that, folks. Pay no attention to that man. He's a professor at Berkeley, for crying out loud! His theory is obviously nutty. Even his wife hates it.
Listen: These football players are fine young men, role models for our nation's youth. And the Super Bowl is a great American ritual, wholesome fun for the whole family.
So just sit back and relax. Ignore all these silly theories. Just enjoy the game, you Saturnalian, reptile-brained, elk-headed, isopraxic, militaristic, sexist, homoerotic primates.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... 5Feb5.html
