Full Description
As the 1994 World Cup Finals in the United States clearly demonstrated, football is the quintessential global game. One of the world's most popular arenas for the expression of conflict and emotion, it is virtually unparalleled as a site for cultural analysis. Players, officials, supporters and commentators all have key roles in a social drama incorporating the deeply symbolic and ritualistic. A powerful vehicle for ideals of masculinity, football also offers penetrating insights into the iconography of the body; manifestations of rivalry and conflict; discourses of knowledge; expressions of communitas and geo-social belonging; the celebration and denigration of the Other; and the inversion of power hierarchies through carnival.In bringing these themes together, this accessible and absorbing book by leading scholars of sport and leisure reveals football's differing meanings across cultures. It will be of interest to students and scholars in cultural studies, anthropology, sports sciences and, more simply, to anyone with a passion for this global game.
Contents
Anthony Giddens, Foreword -- Richard Giulianotti & Gary Armstrong, Reclaiming the Game: An Introduction to the Anthropology of Football -- Eduardo P. Archetti, 'And Give Joy to my Heart': Ideology and Emotions in the Argentinian Cult of Maradona -- Jose Sergio Leite Lopes, Successes and Contradictions in 'Multiracial' Brazilian Football -- Rocco De Biasi & Pierre Lanfranchi, The Importance of Difference: Football Identities in Italy -- Dag Tuastad, The Political Role of Football for Palestinians in Jordan -- Paul Nchoji Nkwi & Bea Vidacs, Football: Politics and Power in Cameroon -- Paul Richards, Football and Violence in War-Torn Africa: Soccer and Social Rehabilitation in Sierra Leone -- Anne Leseth, The Use of Juju in Football: Sport and Witchcraft in Tanzania -- Gary Armstrong & Malcolm Young, Legislators and Interpreters: The Law and 'Football Hooligans' -- Richard Giulianotti, Enlightening the North: Aberdeen Fanzines and Football Identity -- Hans Kristian Hognestad, The Jambo Experience: An Anthropological Study of Hearts Fans -- John Hughson, The Bad Blue Boys and the 'Magical Recovery' of John Clarke -- David L. Andrews, Robert Pitter, Detlev Zwick & Darren Ambrose, Soccer's Racial Frontier: Sport and the Suburbanization of Contemporary America
