Sport in Transition: Emerging Trends on Culture Change in the Anthropology of Sport

Historically, within anthropology, sport has been perceived as an inconsequential form of entertainment spectacle, seemingly at variance with, and secondary to, broader political and social discourses. An analysis of these four works, however, provides an opportunity to explore shifting representations surrounding issues of culture change and identity production within the anthropology of sport, with an emphasis on three inter-related themes:

1. theories and methodologies for representing the intersections between culture change and sport;

2. historical shifts in modes of representation and writing within anthropological sports studies, and

3. representations of identities within sport.