antropologi.info - anthropology in the news blog

    Nordisk | Auf Deutsch | Anthropology Newspaper | Anthropology Journal Ticker | Journals | Contact

World Cup Enthusiasm: "Need for a collective ritual, not nationalism"

by lorenz on Jun 26, 2006 in Us and Them, sports


(Image: German and Swedish fans in Oslo)

Swissinfo interviews anthropologist Fabrizio Sabelli about the enthusiasm of Swiss fans during the World Cup. According to Sabelli, it's driven by a need for a collective ritual and not nationalism:

We're currently going through a pretty dull cultural period, which offers few gatherings like the World Cup, and people need them. They want to get together because they are increasingly lonely. And this solitude is not a uniquely Swiss malaise – it is found in all contemporary societies. Everyone needs rituals but there is a dearth of them in our globalised society.

I think it's simply about rediscovering a sort of collective feeling shared at a celebration and above all the thought of a potential victory.

This Swiss team is made of different backgrounds, yet it doesn't prevent members from presenting a united front under the Swiss flag. This, he says, is "an effect of the magic of sport ". Nevertheless, he doesn't believe that football can have a determining influence on how we perceive others.

>> read the whole interview on Swissinfo

SEE ALSO:

Is the Football World Cup a peacemaker?

Rituals - mechanisms for both creating solidarity and for increasing conflict

Yoo Seung-gi: Sports Nationalism and World Cup. A look at the 2002 and 2006 football festivities (OhMyNews)

This entry was posted by admin and filed under Us and Them, sports.
  • « Indigenous? Non-Western? Primitive? The Paris Museum Controversy
  • "Welcome to an Engaged Anthropologist's Blog" »

1 comment

Comment from: lorenz [Member]

admin

Thanks! I’m not on Twitter. Twitter wouldn’t give you any more benefits than the RSS-subscription.

2010-08-04 @ 21:40


Form is loading...

Search

Recent blog posts

  • More dangerous research: Anthropologist detained, beaten, forcibly disappeared in Egypt
  • When research becomes dangerous: Anthropologist facing jail smuggles himself out over snowy mountains
  • In Europe, more than two thirds of all academic anthropologists are living in precarity
  • Globalisation and climate change in the High Arctic: Fieldwork in Svalbard, the fastest-heating place on earth
  • Nobody is normal: "The line between healthy and not healthy is drawn more by culture than by nature”

Recent comments

  • lorenz on Businesses, advertising firms turn to commercial ethnography
  • earthbender1 on Businesses, advertising firms turn to commercial ethnography
  • sofia on Protests against Human Zoo i Houston: Africans on display together with chimpanzees?
  • Santosh Hemrom on A First Look at Italian Anthropology
  • lorenz on Globalisation and climate change in the High Arctic: Fieldwork in Svalbard, the fastest-heating place on earth

Categories

  • All

Retain only results that match:

XML Feeds

  • RSS 2.0: Posts, Comments
  • Atom: Posts, Comments
What is RSS?

User tools

  • Admin

©2022 by Lorenz Khazaleh • Contact • Help • Complete website engine