An ethnic group's members select and translate into social boundaries cultural behaviors that support the group's values. By using sport contact situations between Navajo Indians and Euro-Americans in a 1903 Fourth of July festival and present basketball participation, it is shown that the content and form signaling ethnic boundaries changed over time from traditional Indian sports to Euro-American sport participation. An analysis of these inter- ethnic sports encounters showed that the ethnic group members' perception, selection, and expression of changing behavioral content continually reinforced ethnic diversity. It is suggested that, because inter-ethnic sports' participation reaffirms one's own cultural values, these encounters define ethnic differences, not similarities.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Aberle, D. (1961): "Navajo". In: D. M.Schneider & K. Gough (Eds.): Matrilineal Kinship. Berkeley, California : University of California Press.
2.
Allison, M.T. (1980): A structural analysis of Navajo basketball. Doctoral Dissertation. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
3.
Allison, M.T. & G. Lüschen (1979): "A comparative analysis of Navajo Indian and Anglo basketball sport systems." In: International Review of Sport Sociology, 14 (3-4), 75-86.
4.
Barth, F. (1969): Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of culture difference. Boston: Little, Brown & Company
5.
Blanchard, Kendall (1974): "Basketball and the culture-change process: The Rimrock Navajo case." In: Council on Anthropology and Education Quarterly (Sept. 1974), 5 (4), 8-13.
6.
Brito, S.J. (1977): "The Indian cowboy in the rodeo circuit." In: The Journal of Ethnic Studies (Spring, 1977), 5 (1), 51-57.
7.
Chandler, J. (1974): "Anthropological perspectives on southwestern Indians, 1928-1966." Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Mexico City , Mexico, November 22, 1974.
8.
Cheska, A.T. (1974): Play patterns of North American Indians. Private slide series. Urbana, Illinois.
9.
Cheska, A. ,T. (1976): "Ball games played by North American Indian women." In: R. Renson, P. P. DeNayer, & M. Ostyn (Eds.): The history, the evolution and diffusion of sports and games in different cultures. Leuven, Belgium: B.L.O.S.O.
10.
Cheska, A.T. (1979a): Games of the Pueblo Indians. Unpublished paper, University of Illinois, Urbana.
11.
Cheska, A.T. (1979b): "Native American games as strategies of societal maintenance." In: E. Norbeck & C. Farrer (Eds.): Forms of play of native North Americans. St. Paul: West Publishing Company.
12.
Cheska, A.T. (1981): "Games of native North Americans." In: G. Lüschen and G. H. Sage (Eds.): Handbook of Social Science of Sport. Champaign, Illinois: Stipes Publishing Company.
13.
Cheska, A.T. (1982a): "Ballgame participation of North American Indian women." In: R. Howell (Ed.): Her story in sport. West Point, N. Y.: Leisure Press.
14.
Cheska, A.T. (1982b): "Gender variations in game attraction factors of native American youth." In: A. Dunleavy , A Miracle, and R. Rees (Eds.): Studies in the Sociology of Sport. Forth Worth: Texas Christian University Press.
15.
Churchill, W., N.S. Hill, & M.J. Barlow (1979): "An historical overview of twentieth century native American athletes. In: The Indian Historian, 12 (4), 22-32.
16.
Costo, R. (1974): "Honors given to Indian sports heroes of America . In: Wassaja, 2 (1), 1, 10-11.
17.
Culin, S. (1903): Report, Museum Expedition on a Collecting Expedition . Unpublished papers, Brooklyn Museum, New York, N. Y.
18.
Culin, S. (1970): "Games of North American Indians." 24th Annual Report to the Bureau of Ethnology. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1907. Reprinted Dover Publications, Inc., N. Y., N. Y., 1975.
19.
Drucker, P. (1941): "Cultural element distributions: XVII Yuman-Pima ." In: Anthropological Records, 6 (3), 91-131.
20.
Dutton, B.P. (1975): Indians of the American Southwest. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
21.
Dutton, B.P. (1976a): Navajos and Apaches: the Athabaskan People. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
22.
Dutton, B.P. (1976b): The Pueblos. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
23.
Eggan, F. (1950): Social organizations of Western Pueblos. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
24.
Fox, J.R. (1961): "Pueblo baseball: a new use for old witchcraft ." Journal of American Folklore, 74 (291), 9-16.
25.
Guttmann, A. (1978): From ritual to record: the nature of modern sports . New York: Columbia University Press.
26.
Ibrahim, H. (1975): Sport and society. Long Beach, California: Hwong Publishing Co.
27.
Kentucky Horse FARM MUSEUM (1982): History of the horse legend. (accompanying display). Lexington.
28.
Kluckhohn, C. (1967): "Expressive activities." In: E. Z. Vogt & E. Albert (Eds.): People of Rimrock. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
29.
Kluckhohn, C. & D. Leighton (1962): The Navajo. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc.
30.
Kroeber, A.L. (1925): Handbook of the Indians of California. Washington, D. C.: Bureau of American Ethnology.
31.
Lamphere, L. (1970): "Ceremonial cooperations and networks: a re-analysis of the Navajo outfit." In: Man, 5: (1), 39-59.
32.
Lock, R. F. (Ed.) (1970): The American Indian. Los Angeles: Mankind Publishing Company.
33.
Loy, J.W. (1968): "Nature of sport: a definitional effort." In: Quest, 10: 1-15.
34.
Lüschen, G. (1970): The cross-cultural analysis of sport and games . Champaign, Illinois: Stipes Publishing Company.
35.
McCaskill, J. C. (1936): "Indian sports." In: Indians at Work, (July) 3 (22), 29-30.
36.
Ortiz, A. (1969): The Tewa world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Simpson, R.D. (1964): The Hopi Indians. Los Angeles, California: Southwest Museum.
39.
Spicer, E.H., and R.H. Thompson, (1972) (Eds.): Plural society in the Southwest. New York: Interbook, Inc.
40.
Tindall, B.A. (1975): The perceptual and cultural meaning of basketball . Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting, San Francisco, California, December 2.
41.
Underhill, R. (1951): People of the crimson evening. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, U. S. Indian Service, Department of the Interior.
42.
United States Government Bureau Of The Census ( 1980): United States Census, 1980. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office.
43.
Webb, H. (1969): Professionalization of attitudes toward play among adolescents. In: G. Kenyon (Ed.): Aspects of contemporarysportsociology. Chicago: The Athletic Institute.
44.
Wittfogel, K.A., & E. Goldfrank (1943): "Some aspects of Pueblo mythology and society . Journal of American Folklore, 56 (17), 17-30.
45.
Yeganehlayegh, J.L.G. (1981): "On the relational perspective." In: Central Issues in Anthropology, (November) 3 (2), 55-69.
