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Abstract
This paper examines physical risk and epistemological authority in sport ethnography. Drawing on writing about boxing and pro wrestling, I draw parallels between sport ethnography and investigative journalism. This paper examines ethnography as a social relation similar to boxing and wrestling, containing elements of both play and contest. First, I attempt to deconstruct the bloody nose as a literary technique to establish authorial privilege in participatory sport journalism and ethnography. Next, I draw on experiences as a subject in ethnographic work on pro wrestling and as an 'observant participant' in pro wrestling to evoke the therapeutic potential of ethnographic play.
Notes
1 CitationClifford and Marcus, Writing Culture.
2 CitationRoth, ‘Ethnography Without Tears’; and CitationWacquant, ‘Pugilistic Point of View’.
3 CitationFox, Recapturing Anthropology.
4 CitationWacquant, ‘Pugilistic Point of View’.
5 Fox, Recapturing Anthropology.
6 CitationConquergood, ‘Rethinking Ethnography’.
7 CitationStoller, Sensuous Scholarship.
8 CitationGiulianotti, ‘Participant Observation’; CitationLee, Dangerous Fieldwork; and CitationWolf, ‘High-Risk Methodology’.
9 CitationBolin, ‘Muscularity and Feminity’; Citationde Garis, ‘Experiments in Pro Wrestling’; and CitationWacquant, ‘Social Logic of Boxing’.
10 CitationWacquant, ‘A Fleshpeddler at Work’.
11 CitationAbu-Lughod, ‘Writing Against Culture’, 137.
12 CitationStrathern, ‘Limits of Auto-Anthropology’, 16.
13 CitationRyang, ‘Native Anthropology', 34.
14 Wacquant, ‘Pugilistic Point of View’, 493.
15 Fox, Recapturing Anthropology.
16 Abu-Lughod, ‘Writing Against Culture’, 138–139.
17 CitationTyler, ‘Comment’.
18 Roth, ‘Ethnography Without Tears’.
19 Strathern, ‘Limits of Auto-Anthropology’, 26.
20 CitationFabian, Power and Performance, 4.
21 Citationhooks, ‘Representing Whiteness’, 345.
22 Ryang, ‘Native Anthropology’.
23 Abu-Lughod, ‘Writing Against Culture’.
24 Ryang, ‘Native Anthropology’, 44.
25 Fox, Recapturing Anthropology; and CitationPoewe, ‘Writing Culture’.
26 CitationTyler, ‘Post-Modern Ethnography’.
27 CitationOrtner, Making Gender, 12.
28 CitationGeertz, Interpretation of Cultures, 440.
29 CitationHuizinga, Homo ludens, 8.
30 CitationHuizinga, Homo ludens, 12.
31 Ortner, Making Gender.
32 CitationAlbert, ‘Riding a Line’; and CitationKemp, ‘Sled Dog Racing’.
33 Citationde Garis, ‘Be a Buddy’.
34 CitationCsikszentmihalyi, ‘Play and Intrinsic Rewards’.
35 CitationKlein, Little Big Men, 8.
36 Ortner, Making Gender.
37 Tyler, ‘Comment’.
38 Tyler, ‘Post-Modern Ethnography', 134.
39 CitationMazer, Professional Wrestling; and CitationMazer, ‘The Doggie Doggie World’.
40 CitationPlimpton, Shadow Box, 16.
41 CitationMacAloon, ‘The Ethnographic Imperative’.
42 CitationCrapanzano, ‘Hermes’ Dilemma', 69.
43 Plimpton, Shadow Box, 43 (emphasis mine).
44 Plimpton, Shadow Box, 44.
45 CitationSaid, Orientalism.
46 Wacquant, ‘Social Logic of Boxing’.
47 Said, Orientalism.
48 Wacquant, ‘Social Logic of Boxing’, 243.
49 Wacquant, ‘Social Logic of Boxing’, 242.
50 CitationBoulton and Smith, ‘Social Nature of Play Fighting’.
51 de Garis, ‘Be a Buddy’.
52 Wacquant, ‘Puglistic Point of View’; CitationWacquant, ‘Prizefighter's Three Bodies’; and, Wacquant, ‘A Fleshpeddler at Work’.
53 Wacquant, ‘Prizefighter's Three Bodies’, 526.
54 Wacquant, ‘Puglistic Point of View’, 494.
55 Wacquant, ‘A Fleshpeddler at Work’, 4.
56 Wacquant, ‘Prizefighter's Three Bodies’, 329.
57 Wacquant, ‘Social Logic of Boxing’, 223.
58 CitationHare, ‘Occupational Culture’.
59 CitationSugden, ‘Exploitation of Disadvantage’.
60 Wacquant, ‘Puglistic Point of View’, 520.
61 Mazer, Professional Wrestling, 59.
62 de Garis, ‘Experiments in Pro Wrestling', 69.
63 Mazer, Professional Wrestling, 4.
64 I choose to follow Mazer's literary technique of referring to me as ‘Larry Brisco’ in the context of the field, and Citation‘Laurence de Garis’ in the context of written work. While I recognize that we're all the same people – ‘Mazer’ and ‘Sharon’, ‘Brisco’ and ‘de Garis’ – I find the distinction both helpful and playful in supporting writer/author distinctions.
65 Mazer, Professional Wrestling, 159.
66 Mazer, Professional Wrestling, 12.
67 Wacquant (Citation1992) also found comfort in his journal after feeling awkward in the gym.
68 Mazer, Professional Wrestling, 51.
69 Mazer, Professional Wrestling, 91.
70 de Garis, ‘Experiments in Pro Wrestling'.
71 Mazer Professional Wrestling, 12.
72 Tyler, ‘Post-Modern Ethnography’.