Hooligans, Aggression, and the FIFA World Cup: How Football Reflects upon Race/Class/Gender/Power
The 2018 FIFA World Cup starts on June 14, 2018. This year it is being hosted by Russia. And in case you haven’t heard: we have a Russian ‘hooligan’…
Tag: Sports
More on racist mascots
In my house, we are already two months into baseball season — which also means the resurgence of critical blogs, news articles and discussions about racist mascots. We…
More on racist mascots
In my house, we are already two months into baseball season — which also means the resurgence of critical blogs, news articles and discussions about racist mascots. We…
Wrestling With the Culture of Drug Testing in Sports
Lutte avec frappe, or “wrestling with punches,” the most popular sport in Senegal, adopted international anti-doping rules in 2015. Mark Hann On May 31, 2015, the combat between…
Spirit-Monsters and the Curse of the Chicago Cubs
Superstition is a funny thing. As an anthropologist, I’m not terribly superstitious. I try to be a scientist, after all. But science is fallible, and supposedly rational behavior…
The Untold Story Behind Fiji’s Astonishing Gold Medal
A teary-eyed member of Fiji’s women’s rugby team raised the Fijian flag after the men’s rugby team won the Olympic gold medal. Viewers watched on a big-screen TV…
Memes Brazilians are sharing about the Olympics
One of the stars of the Olympic games in Rio have been the crowd. It has attracted the attention of the foreign press (NYTimes, BBC), and particularly of…
Do the Olympics Make Economic Sense?
The 2016 Rio Olympics cost an estimated $11.46 billion. Most would say the Olympics don’t make financial sense. So why do countries want to host them? Felipe Dana/Associated…
Zika at the Rio Games: Pandemic or Panic?
The World Health Organization stated that there was “no public health justification” to postpone the 2016 Rio Olympics due to the Zika virus. Is the fear of Zika…
For Rio’s Poorest Citizens, Police and Gang Violence Reigns
Protestors in Brazilian favelas—poor neighborhoods in urban areas—have been caught between the police and gangs. Marcos De Paula/Associated Press On the night of June 24, 2013, the street…
Your Olympic Team May Be an Illusion
While many people get caught up in the nationalistic pageantry of the opening ceremony, the reality of the international sports world today is one of increasingly fluid citizenship…
An anthropologist walks into… a gym
Katie Hejtmanek is a cultural anthropologist who studies the culture of strength sports (powerlifting, weightlifting, CrossFit) in the United States. Her articles for BarBend offer not only interesting…
The New Old National Pastime
I attended my first spring training 50 years ago this month as a rookie in the Detroit Tigers organization. The 91-acre Tiger Town complex in Lakeland, Florida, had…
Racist Mascots
Alongside all of the excitement and fanfare that accompanied the recent start to the 2016 MLB season (go Jays!), seeing sportscasters (and twitter users) discuss the team in…
Confessions of a Blackhawks Fan
On June 15, 2015, the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team won their third Stanley Cup championship in six years, putting them in contention for the status of a sports…