Anthropology of Football: masculinization, racism and language

Collective representations or ideologies are translated by collective states, depending on the constitution and organization of society, associated with an ideal of cooperation between a set of diverse spirits, who, over generations, have accumulated experience and knowledge (Cardoso de Oliveira, 1978). This structuring leads to representations of truth that are extremely specific and rooted in the knowledge of individuals belonging to collective groups, even considering that, in certain cases, this knowledge can branch out between these groups. Take, for example, football fans and their way of thinking, often associated with racism (ESPN, 2022), homophobia (Oliveira, 2022), and imposing ideals regarding immediate culture (Valinor Conteúdo, 2021). Historically reproduced logic that assumes that sport is seen by many as “only for men”, considering, as a stereotype, the masculinization of footballers, coaches and sports professionals, and fans. This description represents collective, not individual, thinking.

Within this perspective, man does not think in isolation, but rather through categories generated by social life, with Durkheim associating them with a priori forms of understanding, where they would be made up of pieces and fragments, with the individual responsible for their construction (Cardoso de Oliveira, 1978). In this way, we observe the solidification of this line of reasoning through the identification of certain mass behaviours, which reinforce these ideals. Among some recent cases, cases of invasion of the field can be cited, during the football match between Sport Club do Recife x Clube de Regatas Vasco da Gama, in Serie B of the Brazilian Championship (Neto & Alves, 2022). Masculinization, associated with the aggressiveness generated by the celebration of a Vasco player's goal, reinforces the maintenance and construction of this way of thinking, materialized by the actions of Sport fans, with attacks on the club's security guards, and firefighters who worked in the field.

For Poulantzas, ideology consists of a specific objective associated with relative coherence, that is, assimilated to representations, values, and beliefs, so that agents participate in religious, moral, aesthetic, and philosophical activities (Cardoso de Oliveira, 1978). Thus, according to the description of the examples and correlations highlighted above, we must consider that the positioning, behaviour, conceptions, and ideals of one group to the detriment of the other do not arise at the moment of their consolidation as fans, but rather, with the family, school, friendships, and assimilations between which values will be identified as relevant and internalized, in a logic of what makes sense and what is most advantageous to the individual, expressing themselves collectively, within a logic of thought, as a form of defend and ensure the hegemony of their way of thinking.

As a function, Poulantzas concludes that ideology seeks to hide real contradictions, through the reconstruction of an imaginary plane of a relatively coherent discourse that acts as a horizon for agents, shaping their representations based on real relationships, inserting them into the unity of relationships (Cardoso de Oliveira, 1978). So, returning to the example highlighted above, in the game between Sport x Vasco, when a fan defends the actions of the fans, attributing these actions, the celebration of the opposing player, to the fact that this player was part of the youth teams of a rival (Santa Cruz Futebol Clube), as a criticism to the quality of the game presented by the team, or as a criticism to the conduct of the judge and the VAR (video assistant referee) on the field, is reinforcing this imaginary plan that offers a horizon for the propagation of these actions to groups of fans who consider these representations as a practice, that is, in real relationships.

Identity contemplates the individual and society, formed by social processes, is maintained, modified, or remodelled by social relations, where examples of these processes are collective representation and popular belief that differ from each other, since the first is unconscious, while the second is conscious (Cardoso de Oliveira, 1978). These social processes, related to the maintenance and formation of identity, are defined by the social structure. The environment in which the individual is inserted reinforces identity through social relations among themselves, on an individualized level through conversations and assimilations about the need to position themselves regarding the team's performance by the actors, or on a collective level through direct actions, such as entering the field during the game as a form of protest, demanding technical quality from players through threats, among other possible attitudes.

The identity associated with language can be understood through logical interpolations based on social relations. Linguists and sociologists play an important role in understanding the logic of language, while the former provides etymologies that help to understand kinship terms, the latter provides customs, positive rules, and prohibitions that help to understand certain traits or instabilities of terms in the language (Lévi- Strauss, 1975). As a way of expressing manifestations of hatred or retaliation, racist, xenophobic, and homophobic chants are recurrent practices among rival fans. As an example, we have the categorization of Fluminense Football Club as a racist team by rival fans, with chants using the word “rice powder” (GloboEsporte.com, 2019). Within a historical logic considered by linguists and customs considered by sociologists, it is highlighted that this connotation may have derived from the use of aftershave powder by black players during the 80s, this case was initially recorded during a game between América Football Club x Fluminense Football Club with the player Carlos Alberto, former América player, as the target of the chants.

Linguistics locates the persistence of certain disappeared relationships, while sociology explains that this occurs due to their etymology, confirming their validity (Lévi-Strauss, 1975). This can be seen in relation to the condition of Brazilian players who play in the national championship and those who play in European championships. The relationship is much closer with fans and journalists among those who play in the Brasileir?o than those who play in the championships of the five biggest European leagues (SportTV.com, 2019). Calls made by the Brazilian National Team to players such as Douglas Luiz, midfielder from Aston Villa Football Club and Roger Iba?ez, defender from Associazione Sportiva Roma in friendlies in 2021 and 2022, demonstrate the dissatisfaction of a large part of the fans and sports commentators.

Another important aspect associated with linguistics is phonological analysis, applied to words dissociated into phonemes, which do not have necessary relationships at the vocabulary stage, applying to all elements, including kinship terms (Lévi-Strauss, 1975). Considering this, language adopts a diffuse character, with sound as a central characteristic in the perception of relationships shared by the diffusing actor, and captured and associated by the receiving actor. In this sense, language plays a fundamental role for the football coach as a way of getting the most out of athletes, but also as a way of situating and motivating them in the face of daily situations such as defeats, pressure from managers, fans and the press, and including through social media, a showcase for exposure to players. Dinizism, a philosophy of ball possession and offensive play, and the proximity of daily practices between the coach and the squad, defended by coach Fernando Diniz, and often mischaracterized by the public (Sá, 2022), is a way of thinking about the interpretation of language.

There is a difference between the phoneme framework of a language and the kinship terms of a society, relating to communication and the means with which the language obtains this result respectively, the latter, highlighted by Lewis H. Morgan when defining that the terms of kinship constitute systems (Lévi-Strauss, 1975). In this way, the retraction of kinship terms indicates a degree of relationship based on their use, by one individual or another, with a specific intonation, aiming at the final objective, the transmission of the message. As a linguistic variation, the "futebolês" has a direct impact on the vision of “root” football in relation to “modern” football. Multi-champion Brazilian coaches have expressed their discontent with the tactics and languages of modern football, for coaches like Vanderlei Luxemburgo, “Terminology is not modernity. Modernity is in the structure…” (Rudá, 2022).

However, as indicated by Morgan, when associating kinship terms with systems, we observe in the “terminologies”, reflections of the evolution of a sport associated with issues such as: medicine and longevity of athletes (e.g. longevity and decisive character of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo), infrastructure for preparing base players (e.g. use of the base in teams like Palmeiras and S?o Paulo), tactics that increase player productivity (e.g. Vinícius Júnior pre- and post-Carlo Ancelotti). Thus, often when we do not understand the changes in the environment, we assume that the definitions have taken on another form, with the same central characteristics as those used previously. According to the description, when considering that terms such as breadth and depth are limited to opening the wingers and receiving the ball behind their back or in the void, respectively (UOL, 2022), the coach excludes behavioural, practical, and theoretical changes in the sport, making superficial and outdated analysis.

The kinship system encompasses the terms by which the types of family relationships are expressed, not expressing unique nomenclatures such as feelings of individuals or classes of individuals toward certain behaviour, such as respect or familiarity, right or duty, affection or hostility (Lévi-Strauss, 1975). In this sense, Lévi-Strauss indicates the existence of another system in addition to the terminological (or vocabulary system), focused on guaranteeing the cohesion and balance of the group, entitled the attitude system. Thus, football coaches who belong to a group that expresses a logic of defending the use of “root football” terminologies, will only feel represented as a group when defending their position, either through example, as in the case of Luxemburgo, where the technician directly criticizes the adoption of these terminologies, or in other cases, such as through criticism of foreign technicians.

The concept of gatekeepers is used by anthropologists to block complex investigations, which are analysed in regions where heterogeneity and historicity impact the practitioners of a discipline (Trouillot, 2018). Based on this practice adopted by researchers, the author indicates the need to open this “Pandora’s Box”. Thus, understanding the heterogeneous and historical context of the leagues is motivated by the particularities and reflections of evolution or retraction. To mention these issues in different parts of the globe, we can highlight the characteristics: of English football, such as the origin of the sport in the country, the hooligan influence, drugs, and passion associated with the purchasing power of English fans; of Brazilian football, such as the overvaluation of players due to the historical relevance of the national championship, the disorganization of the game schedule and excess of championships, and the demand for immediate results; and Japanese football, as the evolution from Brazilian roots and influences and the conduct associated with the way of playing as the profile of the population.

Gatekeepers refer to traits considered “native”, mystified by theory to imprison the object of study, acting as theoretical simplifiers, re-establishing the ethnographic present, and protecting the timeless context of culture (Trouillot, 2018). The author argues that, in places where heterogeneity and historicity are significant, this practice becomes less successful, due to theoretical simplification. The specificities of the characteristics of the leagues, in a historical and heterogeneous context, initially local and later multi-local, can be understood through the world system. Globalization creates a character of assimilation and adaptation of what is considered relevant in the elite scenario of world football, the European one. When we take, for example, the gameplay of European clubs, and the training of players in the youth categories that fit into this format, we have La Masia from Fútbol Club Barcelona as the best example (Ruela, 2014). In Brazil, the Meninos da Vila Training Center (Santos Futebol Clube) and the Cotia Athlete Training Center (S?o Paulo Futebol Clube) have had a direct impact on the professional team (Lima & Belattini, 2019) due to management and financial difficulties.

In a grassroots football context, as a way of “mining” talent, some European clubs create branches of their training centres in other countries and/or use scouts. Writers, linguists and literary critics, the vast majority reflect on "créolité", referring to the meaning of individuals being part of societies and cultures born from contact (Trouillot, 2018). In this sense, related to, it is important to understand the impact, the difficulties of adaptation, and the relevance of black immigrants in European national team football, in countries such as France, Belgium, and Portugal, by reflecting on the extent to which prejudice is exercised, when marginalizing immigrants or applauding players of African descent, as with the French team's title at the 2018 World Cup in Russia (Bullé, 2018).

Anthropological theory does not contemplate certain objects of study related to colonialism, and tools such as honour and shame, the caste system, and filial piety (Trouillot, 2018). The author highlights that, while anthropology opts for “pre-contact” situations or creates “non-contact” situations, certain analyses make up contact entirely, as in the case of his study of the Caribbean. Honour and shame can be associated: pressure and demands from the press (e.g. situations and pressure from the Brazilian press on coaches and the maturation of Jürgen Klopp's work at Liverpool Football Club and Mikel Arteta at Arsenal Football Club); deaths and fights between fans (e.g. fights between rival fans such as Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras and Sport Club Corinthians Paulista); the highlights of titles and the impacts of second places (e.g. Brasileir?o title of Clube Atlético Mineiro in 2021 against runner-up in the Copa Libertadores of Santos Futebol Clube in 2021); the historic and humiliating defeats (e.g. 7x1 between the German team and the Brazilian team); to cases of identification of players with clubs (e.g. relevance of the penalty taken by Gabriel Barbosa in Flamengo's 2022 Copa do Brasil title); to the challenges faced by homosexuals (e.g. the number of players who come out publicly) and blacks (e.g. the influence of immigrants in the Belgian and French generations) in sport.

In this sense, in relation to these issues, Durkheim highlights that collective representations are not conscious, as they are the product of a cooperation that extends in space and time, to produce many individuals who associate, mix and combine their ideas and feelings (Cardoso de Oliveira, 1978). In other words, actions such as fights, pressure, demands, impacts of defeats, and prejudices are often reproduced in a herd effect, associated with honour and shame, as reported by Trouillot.

References

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