Sporting practices are not only series of biomechanical actions: they are also gestures which make sense. Accustoming the body to a set of actions also implies the transmission of a system of dispositions that can often transcend the time/space parameters of the practice. From this perspective, "traditional wrestling" could be more than a physical activity; it could express, define and transmit a particular sporting culture, as well as a localized cultural identity. It also represents a cultural, ritual and regulated way to interpret the physical confrontation between men, and these can be linked (explicitly or implicitly) to the social representations of some fundamental cultural values, like violence, force, masculinity, relationships and physical contact. This ethnographic research analyses how a traditional wrestling practice could define a sporting culture and give practitioners a way to allow them to belong to a social identity. From an anthropological point of view and through ethnographic participation, this essay analyses the processes of "(re-)invention" of gouren (Breton wrestling) especially from the province of Rennes, delineating the social, historical and cultural dimensions of this activity. For some Breton people actively involved in the process of "sportization" and institutionalisation of gouren (especially Dr. Cotonnec, who founded the first Breton wrestling Federation in 1930), Breton wrestling represented a local version of what gymnastics represented for the republican nation-state at the time of its attempts to build a national French identity through physical education: a different physical culture (or what Bretons considered the "authentic" physical culture of Brittany). Even now, gouren is considered an emblematic and typically Breton way to participate in sport. The research delineates the contemporary collective process of re-invention and of display of such a regional wrestling tradition. It especially focus on some key concepts, such as heritage, performance, embodiment and transmission, technique of the body, and French cultural and regional identities. Breton wrestling helps redefine the meaning of physical contact in sport by redirecting the inherent violence in wrestling and legitimizing it as a traditional sport.

Nardini, D. (2015). Gouren: The Breton Way to Wrestle. In "Coming from the past, working in the present, looking to the future: Aims, topics and results of sport history", 16th ISHPES Congress, August 18th – 22nd, 2015, Split, Croatia.

Gouren: The Breton Way to Wrestle

NARDINI, DARIO
2015

Abstract

Sporting practices are not only series of biomechanical actions: they are also gestures which make sense. Accustoming the body to a set of actions also implies the transmission of a system of dispositions that can often transcend the time/space parameters of the practice. From this perspective, "traditional wrestling" could be more than a physical activity; it could express, define and transmit a particular sporting culture, as well as a localized cultural identity. It also represents a cultural, ritual and regulated way to interpret the physical confrontation between men, and these can be linked (explicitly or implicitly) to the social representations of some fundamental cultural values, like violence, force, masculinity, relationships and physical contact. This ethnographic research analyses how a traditional wrestling practice could define a sporting culture and give practitioners a way to allow them to belong to a social identity. From an anthropological point of view and through ethnographic participation, this essay analyses the processes of "(re-)invention" of gouren (Breton wrestling) especially from the province of Rennes, delineating the social, historical and cultural dimensions of this activity. For some Breton people actively involved in the process of "sportization" and institutionalisation of gouren (especially Dr. Cotonnec, who founded the first Breton wrestling Federation in 1930), Breton wrestling represented a local version of what gymnastics represented for the republican nation-state at the time of its attempts to build a national French identity through physical education: a different physical culture (or what Bretons considered the "authentic" physical culture of Brittany). Even now, gouren is considered an emblematic and typically Breton way to participate in sport. The research delineates the contemporary collective process of re-invention and of display of such a regional wrestling tradition. It especially focus on some key concepts, such as heritage, performance, embodiment and transmission, technique of the body, and French cultural and regional identities. Breton wrestling helps redefine the meaning of physical contact in sport by redirecting the inherent violence in wrestling and legitimizing it as a traditional sport.
slide + paper
Breton wrestling, Breton identity, Body techniques, Brittany, traditional wrestling, sporting values, sporting culture
English
16th ISHPES Congress, “Coming from the past, working in the present, looking to the future: Aims, topics and results of sport history”
2015
"Coming from the past, working in the present, looking to the future: Aims, topics and results of sport history", 16th ISHPES Congress, August 18th – 22nd, 2015, Split, Croatia
2015
none
Nardini, D. (2015). Gouren: The Breton Way to Wrestle. In "Coming from the past, working in the present, looking to the future: Aims, topics and results of sport history", 16th ISHPES Congress, August 18th – 22nd, 2015, Split, Croatia.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/130551
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