Effects of western culture on Lacrosse
“Sport is a kind of physical play that is constrained by rules: “a physically exertive activity that is aggressively competitive within constraints imposed by definitions and rules” (Blanchard and Cheska 1985, 60).
Lacrosse is a sport that is currently played in the United States but has existed in North America long before the United States had formed. Lacrosse is a stickball game that has been played by American Indians for centuries. According to Thomas Vennum Jr. author of American Indian Lacrosse: Little Brother of War, “Early data on lacrosse, from missionaries such as French Jesuits in Huron country in the 1630s and English explorers, such as Jonathan Carver in the mid-eighteenth century Great Lakes area, are scant and often conflicting” (uslacrosse.org).
One reason for this is that the many American Indian tribes had different variations of the game.
Traditionally, the game served more than just a source of entertainment. Thomas Vennum Jr. claims that in American Indian culture, “Its [lacrosse] origins are rooted in legend, and the game continues to be used for curative purposes and surrounded with ceremony. Game equipment and players are still ritually prepared by conjurers, and team selection and victory are often considered supernaturally controlled” (uslacrosse.org).
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In todays’ Western society, this ritualization of the sport may seem a little ridiculous, however, the ritualization of lacrosse is still commonplace in professional as well as non-professional lacrosse teams today. This ritualization of the sport gives way to a lacrosse subculture that is unique.
Merriam-Webster defines a subculture as “an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group exhibiting characteristic patterns of behavior sufficient to distinguish it from others within an embracing culture or society”. In this case, lacrosse is a subculture of western culture. That being said, one can more deeply conceptualize this in terms of language as culture is so embedded with it. According to the French philosopher Jacques Derrida’s idea of différance, words have a hierarchical place in western culture which is expressed in many sets of binary oppositions in which the dominate culture’s values and ideals are expressed. For example, in our dominantly white western culture being wealthy is a shared value leaving poverty to be the antitheses of this and, in turn, the lesser valued aspect of our culture.
With this being said, lacrosse is no exception to the effects of différance. This sport has its own set of jargon in relationship to the values of the players. Lacrosse jargon reflects the fact that lacrosse is one of the most violent sports played in the US whether it is being played professionally or not. Words used to describe different aspects of the sport are all taken from terms used in war. Words like attacker, defenseman, cannon, gun, bomb, captain, and little brother of war (the Cherokee name for lacrosse) are all commonly used in every lacrosse game. Similarly, words such as anklebreaker, backbreaker and body check all are extremely violent terms used in daily games to reflect the valued violent nature of the sport.
All of this then reflects back to the western culture in which this sport is a part of. Proof of this is seen through the highest honor a non-professional lacrosse player can receive. This honor is being named an “All-American”. All of these points show that violence and America are extremely valued in the subculture of lacrosse that then reflects the dominant western culture.
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Another ritualized aspect of lacrosse has to do with the spectators. People of western culture may look at the costumes, headdresses, and face paint that the American Indians wore while participating in their stickball game as taboo and strange. However, if one takes a closer look on how lacrosse, and many other western sports, are watched and played it may not seem as strange anymore.
Fans dress in elaborate outfits all of the same colors in order to support the team they are rooting for. They paint their faces similarly to that of an American Indian tribe. They bear colorfully painted signs and banners and scream and make as much noise as possible in order to support the team they hope wins. When their team does win, the fans dance and hug and celebrate as if they just won themselves. Oppositely, when the team they are rooting for loses, they cry and mourn as if they lost as well.
In extreme examples, in both professional and non-professional lacrosse games, people brave the harsh weather conditions such as rain, cold, and even sometimes snow to support their team. Some even paint their bodies and brave the weather shirtless. All of these rituals can be seen in American Indian tribes as well, however, by putting it in a context that westerners can better relate to and comprehend the rituals do not seem as taboo.
One last ritualization that can be seen in lacrosse has to do with money. This sets up the main difference between professionally and non-professionally played lacrosse. In professionally played lacrosse, the players, coaches, trainers, and referees are all paid a certain amount of money each season. However, this is not as interesting to cogitate about as what the spectators do with their money.
Spectators not only pay a fee to watch the sport being played, they also place many bets on which team will win or lose. Many people will bet what seems to outsiders to be absurd amounts of money on a certain team for reasons unknown to the outsider. However, the people making the bets have reasons of their own for why they decide to bet on these games.
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Jeremy Bentham’s concept of deep play illuminates this point well. He defines Deep Play as a game with stakes so high that no rational person would engage in it. However, in our culture we call the spectators of sports “fans”. “Fan” is a shortened term for “fanatic” who is defined by Merriam Webster as a person “marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion”. So, it is completely plausible in our culture for fans to act in ways that suggest deep play to be a commonplace occurrence during professional sporting events such as lacrosse.
Many different factors are at play when contemplating the effects of culture on certain sports. For lacrosse, western culture has played a key role in shaping it into the sport that it is today. Language sets up a binary system to express the violent ideals of the sport. American Indians set the path of the ritualization of lacrosse long before the sport began to be played professionally. Lastly, fans play their part in the ritualization making lacrosse a complete subculture of its own. All of these factors of western culture have shaped lacrosse into the sport that it is today.
Works Cited
Geertz, Clifford. “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight.” Daedalus 134.4
(2005): 56-86. Print.
Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.
Vennum, Thomas, Jr. “My Website TopNav Museum & Hall of Fame History.” My
Website TopNav Museum & Hall of Fame History. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.
