Anthropology examines how sports are used to create social cohesion, create national identities, and to promote ideologies. While I do not actively participate in or follow many sports, after studying the topic in class, I started to think how sports could affect and reflect Danish culture. While in Denmark, I noticed that many of the students I met played in club sports and followed their national teams. Handball, football (soccer), and badminton were among the most popular sports played and watched. Many great sports stars are from Denmark and instill national pride in Danish citizens. This source of common pride in national sports promotes cultural unity and social cohesion. Danish people can find common ground in relating to each other through the national teams they support. Pride in the national sports teams encourages national pride and helps to create a cultural identity.
There is a great amount of pride in the Danish national handball teams. Handball, a fast-paced game commonly compared to basketball and water polo, was invented in Denmark. The women’s handball team is very popular and largely supported in Denmark, having won the Olympic gold medal three times in a row and numerous other championships around Europe. I noticed that the women’s handball team seemed to be just as popular and as widely supported as the men’s team, if not more so. This was surprising to me because in the US, professional men’s teams are generally more popular and more widely endorsed than professional women’s teams. In the Danish culture, it seems like men’s and women’s sports are of more equal value in their society. In this more egalitarian model, people supporting both men’s and women’s teams equally can be seen as giving equal importance to both men and women. This equal support can be seen as a reflection of Danish cultural ideas and something that also promotes egalitarianism.
Aarhus Universitet
2007 Spectator Sports. Electronic document, http://www.au.dk/en/is/living/sports.htm, accessed November 4, 2007.
No comments:
Post a Comment