Review by Choice Review
Three accomplished anthropologists provide a thorough overview of the anthropological study of sport. They combined their own specialty areas with prior anthropology publications as well as a survey of the literature of sport history, sociology, and philosophy to produce a thematically organized discussion of sport across the millennia and across the world as a whole. Topics include sport through the lens of colonialism and imperialism, health and the environment, cultural performance and mega-events, nationalism, social class, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, and sexuality. Each of these topics has been studied by other scholars in a variety of disciplines (which the authors acknowledge with detailed notes), but the strength of this work is both the connection of past scholarship with anthropological theory and the inclusion of a truly international perspective that encompasses the non-Western world. The authors' own fieldwork experiences have included work in China, Brazil, Cuba, Tonga, Fiji, Japan, and Europe, resulting in additional insights. Although the structure necessitates some repetition, this weakness is counterbalanced by the fact that the individual chapters can largely stand alone. This ambitious endeavor is, on the whole, nicely done. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels. --Sarah K. Fields, University of Colorado-Denver
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
