While we’re reading Horace Miner’s classic Nacirema essay, here is more for you to think about.
First, peruse Alan Dundes’ essay “Into the Endzone for a Touchdown: A Psychoanalytic Consideration of American Football” (To get to this link, you need to have access to JSTOR – i.e., you need to be on the Davidson College network). Dundes is not an anthropologist (he is a folklorist), but compare his discussion to what Miner and Rosaldo are saying in our readings for class.
In his classic symbolic analysis of football, Alan Dundes makes an argument that American football is essentially a form of homosexual behavior: “The unequivocal sexual symbolism of the game, as plainly evidenced in folk speech coupled with the fact that all of the participants are male, make it difficult to draw any other conclusion. Sexual acts carried out in thinly disguised symbolic form by, and directed towards, males and males only, would seem to constitute ritual homosexuality” (Dundes 1978: 87). He gets to this conclusion by looking at the idioms and metaphors of football – the way the sport is talked about by people. Here are some examples of his approach:
The object of the game, simply stated, is to get into the opponent’s endzone while preventing the opponent from getting into one’s own endzone. Structurally speaking, this is precisely what is involved in male verbal dueling. One wishes to put one’s opponent down; to “screw” him while avoiding being screwed by him. We can now better understand the appropriateness of the “bottom patting” so often observed among football players. A good offensive or defensive play deserves a pat on the rear end. The recipient has held up his end and has thereby helped protect the collective “end” of the entire team. One pats one’s teammates’ ends, but one seeks to violate the endzone of one’s opponents! (Dundes 1978:81)
The trust one has for one’s own teammates is perhaps signaled by the common postural stance of football players. The so-called three point stance involves bending over in a distinct stooped position with one’s rear end exposed. It is an unusual position (in terms of normal life activities) and it does make one especially vulnerable to attack from behind, that is, vulnerable to a homosexual attack. In some ways, the posture might be likened to what is termed “presenting” among nonhuman primates. Presenting refers to a subordinate animal’s turning its rump towards a higher ranking or dominant one. (Dundes 1978:81)
Even academics with presumably less personal investment in football will probably find the idea implausible if not downright repugnant that American football could be a ritual combat between groups of males attempting to assert their masculinity by penetrating the endzones of their rivals. (Dundes 1978:86)
Dundes, Alan
1978. Into the Endzone for a Touchdown: A Psychoanalytic Consideration of American
Football. Western Folklore, 37(2 ):75-88.
What do you think? What would Miner or Rosaldo say about this?

6 June 2005, 10:30 pm

By now, the guys should be home or getting ready for the rest of the summer, but I thought I would catch up a bit on posting pictures from our last day in Shanghai. We started early in People’s Square in Shanghai, with a visit to the Shanghai Museum — what should have been the highlight of the day; instead, the fountain in front of the museum (which you can see part of behind John Hoke in the picture above) was worth a “high five” for at least Ben Ralston and Will Nexsen in the picture above. As you can see in the picture below, of Kris Olson (St. John’s Minnesota), Ben, and Niel Andrews, the guys had fun instead playing with the water! But they also enjoyed the artwork in what is arguably China’s finest art museum.

Later in the day, we visited a tea shop where a docent explained to coffee-drinking Americans the right way to make tea. Geoff Fehling, as you can see in the picture below, was entranced by the process.

I am posting this from Nanjing, where Patricia Massey is now starting the bulk of her research on non-governmental organizations in China. This is also my first time in Nanjing; Patricia’s work has given me the opportunity to explore the “Southern Capital” for the first time. Without the time schedule of touring, life is more quiet and flowing at what I feel is a more liveable pace. But we’ll miss the guys (and Jack, our tour guide on the far left), in our last group picture as Patricia and I said goodbye as they left for the airport.

The Davidson boys are on their way home, while Patricia and I have continued on to Nanjing. Everyone is doing well, we had a great last night in Shanghai. I will post some pictures from the last day in a few days.