Script:
Listen to part of a lecture in an anthropology class.
M: Every human society has developed some interest in activities that could be considered sports. The more complex the culture, the more various the range of sporting behavior. There are certain elements in all human sports that are clues to the common underlying structure of sports. Sports tell us a great deal about the kinds of behavior that our prehistoric ancestors evolved—activities that were basic survival skills. Now, let me ask you—what skills were most important to the survival of our ancestors? Yes, Lynne?
W: The ability to find food?
M: Yeah.... But what skills were necessary to find food?
W: Um ... good eyesight?
M: OK. What else?
W: Well, if they were hunters, they also had to be fast runners ... and they had to have good eyes and a good arm—I mean a good aim—so they could kill game.
M: Yes! And isn′t it interesting that you just used the word “game"? Our prehistoric ancestors were gamers—they hunted game animals to survive. Look at the number of sports that originated in hunting. First, hunting itself. But for some societies, the ancient pattern of killing prey is kept alive in the form of blood sports—these are sports that involve the killing of an animal. Even in places where the killing is no longer a matter of survival, it still survives as a sport. The animals—like ducks or pheasant, certain fish—are often eaten as luxury foods. It′s the personal sense of mastery, the sort of delight in the skills of the hunter... these are more important than the food itself. For our prehistoric ancestors, the climax of the hunt was always a group celebration, with songs of praise for the hunters. As hunting sort of became more symbolic, spectators became more important. The ancient Romans brought the hunt to the people by confining it to an arena— the Coliseum. The Coliseum made the hunting field smaller, and this sort of intensified the activity for the entertainment of the spectators. The systematic killing of animals for sport still survives in parts of the world today - think of bullfights and cock fights. But animal sports are only part of the picture. Today, people find human competition more satisfying than competition involving just animals. Take track and field sports. These don’t involve animals, but they did originate in hunting. The earliest sports meetings—or meets, as we call them—were probably ritualized competitions of important skills. Think of how many Olympic sports there are that involve aiming, throwing, and running—which are all hunting skills.
The difference is that now the hunting has become totally symbolic. In some sports, there’s still a strong symbolic element of the kill. Wrestling, boxing, fencing, martial arts all these are examples of ritualized fighting. Even tennis is kind of a fight— of course, an abstract one. There are lots of direct references to fighting in the language of sports, too. For example, what do soccer and chess players do? They “attack" or "defend.”
Today, even the most violent fighting sports have strict rules that are designed to prevent serious injury. There′s also some kind of referee to make sure that the rules are observed. In sports, the objective is victory, not the actual destruction of your opponent. Another objective is to impress and entertain the spectators—not to shock or offend them. Because sports contain such a powerful negative element, most have an ideal of acceptable behavior — something we call "sportsmanship." There′s also a universal convention in sports where the winner honors the defeated opponent with a handshake, with words of praise, or some token of respect.