Papers by Mariann Vaczi
"But Why, We Lost!" An Introduction PART ONE: PASSION, COMMUNITY AND DOUBLE BINDS Chapt... more "But Why, We Lost!" An Introduction PART ONE: PASSION, COMMUNITY AND DOUBLE BINDS Chapter One:"An Englishman Came to Bilbao:" A Social History of Athletic Club Chapter Two: "A Unique Case in the World:" Basque Exceptionalism and Identity through Soccer Chapter Three: Bilbao Catch-22: Passions and Double Binds in Soccer Madness PART TWO: A MATTER OF BALLS Chapter Four: Melodramas of Masculinity and Morality Chapter Five: Fans, Writers, Leaders and Players: Women's Breakthroughs in Soccer's Gender Regime Chapter Six: Dangerous Liaisons, Fatal Women: The Fear and Fantasy of Soccer Wives and Girlfriends in Spain PART THREE: POLITICAL GEOGRAPHIES Chapter Seven: Together and Apart at the Basque Derby: A Prisoner's Dilemma Chapter Eight: "The Spanish Fury:" The Basques, the Catalans and the National Team PART FOUR: LIFE, DEATH AND CONTINUITY Chapter Nine: Death in the Cathedral: Life Cycle Rituals and Mortuary Practices in Sport Stadiums Epilogue: "Now is the Time to Rise!"
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2020
Human tower building (castells) is a two-hundred-year-old traditional sport in Catalonia (Spain),... more Human tower building (castells) is a two-hundred-year-old traditional sport in Catalonia (Spain), which has boomed since the democratic Transition (1975) as a national symbol and low-cost intergenerational pastime activity. In 2006, however, a child performer died as a result of a collapse. Catalonia responded with profound grief, and the human tower community embarked on a process of 'overcoming' (superació), whose success was made contingent on the iconic outcome of towers ritually performed throughout a year and a half. Performers produced and deployed cultural meanings of verticality, and operationalized them for bereavement and meaning making. The case inserts the iconicity of body practice in anthropological debates about death in three ways. First, the verticality and body experience of tower building allowed the bereaved community to imagine life, death, transcendence, and 'resurrection', thus establishing continuing bonds and a social afterlife. Second, the structural completion of towers lent itself to stage-and task-oriented interpretations of bereavement, whereby each tower level was a task the community had to execute to proceed to the next stage of bereavement. However, and third, mourning through sport performance also acknowledged the uncertainties of those cultural scripts of bereavement through the performative contingencies of the outcome of tower building.
Disparidades. Revista de Antropología, 2019
Cómo citar este artículo / Citation: Va czi, Ma riann. 20 19. «M uerte en la Ca tedral: Ce nizas ... more Cómo citar este artículo / Citation: Va czi, Ma riann. 20 19. «M uerte en la Ca tedral: Ce nizas y ri tos fu nerarios en lo s ca mpos de fútbol». Disparidades. Revista de Antropología 74(2): e020. doi: <https://doi.org/10.3989/dra.2019.02.020>. RESUMEN: Un aspecto principal de los ritos funerarios y las prácticas mortuorias modernas y occidentales ha sido un desplaza-miento de ubicaciones religiosas-institucionales a otras seculares-privadas. Sin embargo, algunas respuestas performativas, como esparcir las cenizas de los aficionados difuntos en estadios deportivos, continúan definiendo la muerte como una relación social emplazada en un sistema cultural de obligaciones simbólicas más amplio. Los esparcidos de cenizas en los estadios son actos de los que se cree que tendrán consecuencias para el futuro de la comunidad. Hay tres factores que convierten los estadios en em-plazamientos pertinentes para la re-ritualización de la muerte: emoción, identidad, e iconicidad. Las intensas experiencias emocio-nales, la tradición familiar, las narrativas colectivas y el poder transformador del espacio liminal permiten a los aficionados imaginar su propia transición de muerto a vivo, y su presencia continua en el orden social.
Papeles del CEIC. International Journal on Collective Identity Research, 2020
Estados Unidos [email protected]://orcid.org/0000-0001-6007-0981. Cómo citar / How to cite: Vac... more Estados Unidos [email protected]://orcid.org/0000-0001-6007-0981. Cómo citar / How to cite: Vaczi, Mariann (2020). ¿Somos distintos o estamos locos? Los dobles vínculos del fútbol y la identidad en Bilbao. Papeles del CEIC, vol. 2020/1, papel 221, 1-17. (http://dx.Esta obra está bajo una licencia Creative Commons Atribución 4.0 Internacional Papeles del CEIC, 2020/1 http://dx.
Nations and Nationalisms, 2019
In this essay, we trace the symbolic conundrums of belonging and of the reconciliation of identit... more In this essay, we trace the symbolic conundrums of belonging and of the reconciliation of identities, in the context of Catalan and Scottish sport and politics. Our discussion will commence with a necessarily concise consideration of past academic contentions regarding the national " psyches," which have been argued to shape contemporary notions of identity and politics in Catalonia and Scotland, before turning our attention to the specific role of sport vis-à-vis these psyches and the growing clamour for greater political autonomy for each of these stateless nations. On the basis of the evidence drawn from the interaction between sport and politics in the two nations, we argue that secessionism is a lim-inal field of transformation as it includes what is seen as mutually exclusive sets of relationships (Catalans vs. Span-iards, Scottish vs. British, and secessionists vs. unionists/ centralists), which at the same time allows subjects to pass from one state to another and occupy them nonexclusively.
Nations and Nationalism, 2019
In this essay, we trace the symbolic conundrums of belonging, and of the reconciliation of identi... more In this essay, we trace the symbolic conundrums of belonging, and of the reconciliation of identities, in the context of Catalan and Scottish sport and politics. Our discussion will commence with a necessarily concise consideration of past academic contentions regarding the national 'psyches' which have been argued to shape contemporary notions of identity and politics in Catalonia and Scotland, before turning our attention to the specific role of sport vis-à-vis these 'psyches' and the growing clamour for greater political autonomy for each of these stateless nations. Based on evidence drawn from the interaction between sport and politics in the two nations, we argue that secessionism is a liminal field of transformation as it includes what is seen as mutually exclusive sets of relationships (Catalans vs. Spaniards; Scottish vs. British, secessionists vs. unionists/centralists), which at the same time allows subjects to pass from one state to another and occupy them non-exclusively.
Communication & Sport, 2018
Hungarian-born, 3-time Olympic champion Katinka Hosszú and her American coach-husband Shane Tusup... more Hungarian-born, 3-time Olympic champion Katinka Hosszú and her American coach-husband Shane Tusup revolutionized elite swimming through a training methodology that produced one of the most spectacular comebacks in sport history and turned Hosszú into the financially most successful swimmer. In Hungary, they were considered the "American Dream" due to their Hollywoodish love story, cando attitude, and professional success. The Hosszú-Tusup collaboration became a site of intercultural encounter that brought into relief the discrepancies between the so-called American mentality of democratic, capitalist professionalism, and the socialist-style paternalism of Hungarian sport. Through their May 2018 split, the public and the media deployed melodramatic conventions of meaning making to narrativize, and thus understand, a diverse set of issues such as marriage, adultery, feminism, gender relations, masculinity, coach-athlete relationships, postsocialist transformations, corruption, state paternalism, capitalism, and professionalism.
Ethnos, 2018
As of 2017, Spain is facing the greatest challenge to its post-Franco unity as Catalonia prepares... more As of 2017, Spain is facing the greatest challenge to its post-Franco unity as Catalonia prepares to unilaterally declare independence in spite of a constitutional ban. The crisis of European sovereignty due to state-region antagonisms emerges forcefully in culture. A key domain for the contestation of power relationships is mockery and joking through the use of animal imagery. In particular, the jeering of the Spanish sovereign and the national anthem at football games catalyses spectacular debates over state-region relations, the freedom of expression, and the formation of political communities. The anthropological study of joking relationships in western urban societies helps problematise the concept of sovereignty and domination, vindicate the liberating and democratising potential of mockery, and identify some of their carnival spheres. Joking relationships cultivate a culture of resistance and have community making potential as they draw antagonistic parties into the kernel of a relationship.
American Ethnologist, 2016
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 2015
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2014
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 2016
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South African Review of Sociology, 2011
The following article addresses the socio-cultural significance of a unique recruiting philosophy... more The following article addresses the socio-cultural significance of a unique recruiting philosophy in the first division Spanish soccer Liga: the Basque-only policy of Athletic Bilbao. The Basque club is one of three clubs (besides Real Madrid FC and Barcelona FC) in Spain that have never been relegated to the second division throughout their centenarian history. Athletic contributed to Spanish soccer history in three ways: by importing the game from England through Bilbao's commercial relations; through the numerous records, victories and world-class players it has produced; and by maintaining a unique recruiting philosophy. The article discusses the various characteristics, consequences and impasses of ethnicised recruitment in a globalised competition that thrives on athlete migration. First, it situates the Basque club within the socio-political matrix of 20th-century Spain, Basque Country and Bilbao. Second, it describes the Basque-only philosophy of the club, and how conceptions of Basque identity have changed over time. The article pays attention to the 2010 World Cup victory of the Spanish selection, as it confronted Basques with a decision of identification: whether to cheer or not to cheer the Spanish selection, seen by many as the symbol of an impostor state. Third, the article addresses the impasses of the self-limiting recruiting philosophy: the necessity to suffer mediocre sports performance, and the symbolic obligation to carry on despite that suffering. Finally, the article discusses the community-making effect of a philosophy that renders Athletic's losing game a source of transgressive self-enjoyment – one that becomes part of a historical discourse of auto-exoticisation.
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Papers by Mariann Vaczi
Books by Mariann Vaczi
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