From Baggataway to Lacrosse: An Example of the Sportization of Native American Games |
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| Authors: | Fabrice Delsahut |
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| Institution: | 1. ESPE, Paris 4 Sorbonne University, Paris, Francefabrice.delsahut@espe-paris.fr |
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| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to present a historical anthropological study of the sportization of lacrosse. The Native American game called lacrosse originally refers both to a ritual and an activity; the technical, physical, and magic-religious acts were combined in a single practice. In the nineteenth century, under the leadership of the Canadian William G. Beers, a true institutionalization of lacrosse took place through a process whose purpose was to ‘control’ the game, in which the political and economic necessities have become dominant. Is this shift from the original game to a sport an epistemological shift or a sporting hybridization process between the two practices? |
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| Keywords: | lacrosse Native Americans games sportization hybridization |
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