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American Academy of Political and Social Science

Sport and the Social SciencesAuthor(s): George H. SageSource: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 445,Contemporary Issues in Sport (Sep., 1979), pp. 1-14Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and Social

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ANNALS,AAPSS, 445, Sept. 1979

Sportand the Social SciencesBy GEORGEH. SAGE

ABSTRACT:Sport is one of the most ubiquitous activitiesof modern contemporary society. The pervasiveness of sportcan be seen by the enormous amount of primary and second-ary involvement in it by people of all ages and social strata.Sport penetrates into and plays a significant role in all of thesocial institutions. The functions of play, games, and sport isa major theme running through much of the work of socialscientists. Although there is no definitive list, there are sevenmajor categories of functions of play, games, and sport: in-stinct, developmental-cognitive, mastery, social integration,socialization, social control, and personal-expressive. Thereis a substantial body of literature in the social sciences dis-cussing the importance of each of these functions.

George H. Sage is Professorof Physical Education at the University of NorthernColorado. He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of NorthernColoradoand his doctoratefrom UCLA.His area of research interest is the study ofsport occupations and socialization into and via sports. He is editor of SportandAmerican Society and coauthor of Sociology of American Sport.1

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ALTHOUGH the twentieth cen-tury has been called "TheCentury of" many different things,perhaps no other phenomenon de-serves this distinction more thansport; indeed, the twentieth centurycan legitimately be called "The Cen-tury of Sport," since it has becomeone of the most ubiquitous activitiesof contemporary society. As sociolo-gists Eldon Snyder and ElmerSpreitzer note: "Sports permeate alllevels of social reality from the so-cietal down to the social psychologi-cal levels. The salience of sportcan be documented in terms of newscoverage, financial expenditure,number of participants and spec-tators, hours consumed, and timesamplings of conversation."1 Giventhe pervasiveness of this human ac-tivity, it is obvious that it deservesserious, systematic study. This issueof The Annals illustrates the grow-ing acknowledgement of the legiti-mate scholarly study of sport bypolitical and social scientists. Twogeneral objectives guided the writ-ing of this article. First, to illus-trate how thoroughly sports per-meate modern society, the multi-dimensionality of sport involvementis described and how it is woven intothe social fabric through modernsocial institutions is discussed. Inthe second section of the paper,since the topic of "function" is themost persistent theme about sportthroughout the social sciences, thefunctions that social scientists haveproposed for play, games, and sportare enumerated.

THE PERVASIVENESS OF SPORTPrimary and secondary involvement

In America virtually everyone istouched by sport. Involvement,1. Eldon E. Snyder and Elmer Spreitzer,"Sociology of Sport: An Overview," The So-ciological Quarterly 15 (Autumn 1974):468.

either as a participant or in moreindirect ways, is almost considereda public duty. Primary involve-ment-meaning actual participation-in sport begins for many chil-dren while they are still in elemen-tary school. Youth sports programsinitiate boys and girls into the worldof organized sport at seven or eightyears of age, and if they show alittle interest and aptitude for sportsthey will likely pass through severalsports programs on their way toadulthood. There are an estimated20 million boys and girls now par-ticipating in youth sports programs.2The programs mentioned aboveare sponsored by community, club,or service groups, but Americanschools also provide abundant op-portunities for sports involvement.Most states have legislation requir-ing the teaching of physical educa-tion through high school, and sportsactivities form the basic curriculumof these programs. In addition to therequired physical education classes,most schools throughout the countrysponsor interschool athletic programs,beginning in the junior high schooland continuing through college.Most other countries throughoutthe world have nothing comparableto the youth, interscholastic, andintercollegiate sports programs foundin America, but sports clubs flourishin many countries. For example, inWest Germany one-fourth of thepopulation belongs to sports clubs,and in many respects this systemprovides an excellent model for life-long education. Clubs are open toall, regardless of age, sex, socialclass, religion, or ability. They inte-grate recreation, physical education,and quality of performance as a formof community interaction, fosteringsports and physical education out-

2. Jerry R. Thomas, ed., Youth Sports Guidefor Coaches and Parents (Washington, DC:AAHPER Publications, 1977).

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SPORT AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCESside the schools and making themavailable to all members of thecommunity.3Throughout the world, leisure-time participation undoubtedly pro-duces the greatest amount of primarysport involvement. In the UnitedStates there has been an increase inreported leisure time over the pastgeneration.4 Accompanying thistrend, Meyersohn claims that therehas been a "democratization ofleisure," meaning that there is now agreater use of discretionary time forcultural pursuits, including sports,which were formerly only the prov-ince of the rich.5 Notwithstandingthese trends in leisure time, stud-ies in several countries show thatwhile daily participation in sport iscomparatively low and hardly com-prises a regular free time activityfor the adult population in anycountry, cumulatively leisure sportparticipation numbers in the billionsworldwide. In the United Statesalone there are 24 sports whoseparticipants number five million ormore annually, with swimming ac-counting for 104 million and bowl-ing 44 million.6By far the greatest secondaryinvolvement in sports is as a spec-tator, either by actually attendingsporting events or by viewing themon television. Professional footballattracts some 16 million paid admis-sions each year, and Major League

3. Val D. Rust and Terry Schofield, "TheWest German Sports Club System: A Modelfor Lifelong Learning," Phi Delta Kappan 59(April 1978):543-546.4. John P. Robinson, "Changes in America'sUse of Time, 1965-1975," Report of the Com-munication Research Center (Cleveland StateUniversity, 1976).5. Rolf Meyersohn, "Is There Life AfterWork?" Saturday Review, 4 May 1974, pp.14-16.6. "How Americans Pursue Happiness,"U. S. News and World Report, 23 May 1977,p. 63. Also see A. Szalai, ed., The Use of Time(Paris: Mouton, 1972).

baseball 32 million, but horseracing,with 82 million spectators, and autoracing, with 49 million, attract themost spectators.7 Worldwide, thelargest TV audiences have been at-tracted by sports events; audiencesin excess of 800 million peoplewatched the last Olympic Gamesand World Soccer Championship.Robinson reported that 30 percentof Americans follow sport on tele-vision each day, and Kenyon re-ported that some 50 percent ofthose in his study listened to sporton the radio or watched sport ontelevision each week.8 The threemajor networks in the United Statestelecast more than 1200 hours ofsports annually.9SPORT AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

EconomyIn addition to primary and second-ary involvement, sport also pene-trates into and plays a significantrole in the major social institutions.The economic impact of sport is awe-some; there is no doubt that sport isbig business with a commandingposition in the entertainment in-dustry. Americans spent about $160

billion on leisure and recreation ac-tivities in 1977.10 Ticket sales atsports events, both amateur andprofessional, reached $2 billion in1978.7. "How Americans Pursue Happiness."8. John P. Robinson, "Daily Participationin Sport Across Twelve Countries," in TheCross-Cultural Analysis of Sport and Games,ed. Gunther Luschen (Champaign, IL: Stipes,

1970), pp. 156-173; Gerald S. Kenyon, "TheSignificance of Physical Activity as a Func-tion of Age, Sex, Education, and Socio-Eco-nomic Status of North American Adults,"International Review of Sport Sociology 1(1966):41-54.9. "The Affluent Activists," Forbes 118 (1August 1976):22. See also William Leggett,"He Was Right on the Button," Sports Illus-trated 44 (23 February 1976):48.10. "How Americans Pursue Happiness."

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Although growth in an industryis not necessarily a valid economicindicator of increasing profits, theproliferation of professional sportsfranchises certainly indicates thatprofessional sports is one of themost successful and expanding in-dustries in the United States. Dur-ing the past 20 years, professionalsports teams have multiplied at aremarkable rate. The NationalHockey League began the 1960swith six teams and the 1970s with14. During the 1960s professionalbasketball proliferated from oneleague to two and from 12 teams toa total of 22 teams when the leaguesmerged in the mid-1970s. Majorleague baseball broke a longstand-ing tradition and went from 16 to24 teams; professional football wit-nessed the birth of a new league,the merger of that league with theNFL, and a new 28-team league,thus more then doubling the teamswhich existed in 1960.11Professional athletes' salaries re-flect the economic value placed onsports. A minimum salary of over$30,000 is guaranteed in severalsports and annual salaries of over$100,000 are not uncommon; in-deed, in 1978 the California Angelshad nine players earning $100,000or more. A few of the so-called"super stars" receive salaries inexcess of $300,000, and several havecontracts in excess of $5 million.The average salary in the NationalFootball League in 1978 was over$62,000, while professional golferscompete for over $8 million in prizemoney each year.12

11. For a discussion of the financial aspectsof sport, see Ray Kennedy and Nancy Wil-liamson, "MONEY: The Monster Threaten-ing Sports," Sports Illustrated 49 (17 July1978):29-88. Also see Sports Illustrated (24July 1978):34-49 and (31 July 1978):34-50.12. Ibid.

Professional sports franchises areworth anywhere from $5 million to$40 million. There are several rea-sons for their value, one of which isthat they are profitable-the LosAngeles Dodgers made an estimated$9 million after taxes in 1978. Butfew professional sports franchisescould exist without television reve-nue. Television contracts with pro-fessional sports is a billion dollara year business.13The big business of sport is mani-fested in other ways. Over 170,000student-athletes participate in Na-tional Collegiate Athletic Associa-tion sponsored competitions in 35different sports each year at an in-vestment of 5 billion dollars.'4 Sport,in the form of participant recrea-tion, is often promoted by companiesfor their employees. Industry buysmore sports goods and equipmentthan United States schools andcolleges combined, and they sched-ule more entertainment than thenation's night clubs.15 Even gam-bling on sports is a major economicactivity; estimates of the amount ofmoney that Americans wager onsports range from $15 billion to $50billion per year. Between 12 and 15million Americans bet on pro foot-ball games on any given weekend.Polity

Sport is a prominent feature ofAmerican politics. Politicians recog-nize the pervasiveness of sport andmake every effort to use it forpolitical gain. Recent presidentshave publicly associated themselveswith sports. Nixon's telephone calls

13. Ibid.14. The Sports and Recreation Programsof the Nation's Universities and Colleges,Report Number Five. (Kansas City: The Na-tional Collegiate Athletic Association, 1978).15. "How Americans Pursue Happiness."

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SPORT AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCESto the locker rooms of sports victorsgarneredpublicity for him as well asfor sport. Gerald Ford capitalizedon his background as a footballplayeratthe University of Michigan.And Jimmy Carter'sforays into soft-ball areclearlydesigned to legitimizehis affiliation with sport. But presi-dents are only the most visiblepoliticians to be linked with sport.Politicians fromthe local level to thenational level capitalize as much aspossible on sportbecause not only issport a pervasive component ofAmerican society but it representswhat is good, moral,andtrue.Thus, aconnection with sportplaces the poli-tician on the side of righteousness.The linking of politics and sportextends into international affairs aswell. Today, most countries of theworld use sport as an instrumentof international policy to some ex-tent. Communist countries makequite clear their motive for support-ing and promoting national andinternational sports: sport is used asa visible example of the success oftheir political-economic system. AsMorton says in his book SovietSport: "The Soviets have madeserious business out of sportcompe-tition .... They have forged adirect propaganda link betweensport triumphs on one hand and thevalidity of a social system on theother."16

Perhaps the most obvious exampleof blatant sport diplomacy is in theGerman Democratic Republic.1716. Henry W. Morton, Soviet Sport (New

York: Collier Books, 1963), p. 82; more re-cently the same point is made in James Rior-don, Sport in Soviet Society (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1977).17. For descriptions of sport in East Ger-many see Jerry Kirshenbaum, "AssemblyLine of Champions," Sports Illustrated 45 (12July 1976):56-65 and Brian Chapman, "Eastof the Wall," Runner's World (March 1978):60-67.

The Communist countries are not,of course, the only countries thatpractice sports diplomacy. Canadahas undertaken a federally financedprogram of support to amateurathletics designed to enhance thecaliber of athletes and thus bringprestige and respect to the nation.18In the United States, although thefederal government has not directlysupportedAmericanparticipationinthe Olympic Games, untold mil-lions of dollars are spent to assistindirectly the Olympic team so thatthe United States may impress othernations throughout the world. TheFinal Report of the President'sCom-mission on Olympic Sport issued in1977 recommended unified controlof amateur sport in the form of aCentral Sports Organization andcalled for a federal outlay of $218million in funds and facilities andanother $83 million annually foroperating costs.'9Education

Sportand educationareinexorablyintertwined in American society.Accordingto statistics recently com-piled by the National Federation ofState High School Associations,nearly 6.5 million boys and girlsparticipate on interscholastic ath-letic teams each year.20The signif-icance of these programsin the lifeof high school students is bestexemplified in James Coleman'sstatement that a visitor to a typicalAmerican high school "might well

18. See Report of the Task Force on Sportsfor Canadians (1969).19. President's Commission on OlympicSport. The Final Report of the President'sCommission on Olympic Sports: 1975-1977.(Washington, DC: USGPO, 1977).20. National Federation of State HighSchool Associations, 1978 Sports ParticipationSurvey (Elgin, IL: National Federation ofState High School Associations, 1978).

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SPORT AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCESfall of sports books in recent years,and several have written what mightbe called expose or muckrakingbooks.26Sporthas even invaded broadwayand shows evidence of making ahappy marriagewith drama.Severalyears ago, the story of Jack John-son, the first black heavy-weightboxing champion, came to life in theplay The Great White Hope and be-came an immediate success. Thiswas followed by several other dramasabout sport. Jason Miller's grimlyfunny account of a high schoolbasketball team's 20th reunion, TheChampionship Season, was votedthe best play of 1972 by the DramaCritics Circle. In 1973, The JockeyClub Stakes and the ChangingRoom became two of the mostpopular plays in New York. Thereare definite indications that sportsthemes are increasingly being usedin motion pictures. Movies such asRollerball, Slap Shot, Rocky, andBlack Sunday are only a few of themovies of the past few years witha sports motif.

THE FUNCTIONS OF SPORTAlthoughthe study of sporthas yetto become widespread in any ofthe social sciences, the-foundationhas been laid over the past century,and in the past decade academicinterest in sport has become bothacceptable andpopular.Asthe socialsciences have attempted to cometo grips with sport, one questioncuts across the disciplines: Why?Why do people play and engage ingames and sports? Each social sci-

26. See, for example, Leonard Shector, TheJocks (New York: Paperback Library, 1969);Glenn Dickey, The Jock Empire (Radnor, PA:Chilton, 1974); Robert Lipsyte, Sportsworld(New York: Quadrangle, 1975).

ence has approached this questionfrom its own unique conceptualand theoretical vantage point and,predictably, each has formulateddifferent answers about the func-tions of play, games, and sports.However, the emphasis here is onthe dimension of "function" ratherthan on specific social sciencedisciplines.There is always some danger ofomitting or misrepresenting com-plex phenomena whenever one at-tempts to employ a system of cate-gories, but for simplicity the no-tions about the functions of play,games, and sports have been clas-sified into seven categories: instinct,developmental-cognitive, mastery,social integration, socialization, so-cial control, and personal-expres-sive. This is not meant to be anexhaustive list of functions thathave been advanced for sport; itconstitutes a list of the most com-monly identified functions.Instinct functions

In the latter nineteenth century,at a time when the social scienceswere just emerging as distinct scien-tific disciplines, Charles Darwin'sevolutionary theorywas at its peakofpopularity. Scholars in all fieldswere examiningits tenets forimplica-tions, and several instinct theoriesabout the function of play wereadvanced. In his monumental Prin-ciples of Psychology, Herbert Spen-cer elaborated on the "surplus en-ergy" theory of play, a notion thatappears to have first been articu-lated by the 18th century Germanscholar, Friedrich von Schiller. ButSpencer gave the theory an evolu-tionary twist, arguing that playevolved in humansbecause they haddeveloped effective and efficient

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THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYmeans of meeting their basic needs,so they had much energy availablewhich was dissipated in playforms.27Although intuitively appealing, thistheory of play has been foundrather inadequate on numerouscounts, and few currentsocial scien-tists take it seriously.One of America's most famousearly psychologists, G. Stanley Hall,advanced an evolutionary theory ofplay that came to be known as the"recapitulation theory." Accordingto this theory, children's play wasontogeny repeating phylogeny. Inother words, the play "stages" ofchildren recapitulate the entire bio-culture of humanity. Hall wrote:"The best index and guide to thestated activities of adults in pastages is found in the instinctive,untaught, and nonimitative play ofchildren. . ."28 Thus, children re-enact in play the interests and oc-cupations in the order in whichthey occurred in their prehistoricand primitive ancestors. This viewof play has been widely criticizedand no longer has influential advo-cates in the social sciences.KarlGroos,a philosopher by train-ing, put forward a theory of thefunction of play that clearly hadboth a psychological and evolu-tionary orientation. Based on hisstudies of animal and children'splay, Groos proposed that play is apreparation and practice for adultlife.29 His theory was firmly basedon the principle of natural selectionformulated by Darwin, which sug-gests that animals survive who are

27. Herbert Spencer, Principles of Psychol-ogy, 2 vol., 1855, 1872.28. G. Stanley Hall, Adolescence, vol. 1(New York: Appleton, 1904), p. 129.29. Karl Groos, The Play of Animals (NewYork: Appleton, 1898); The Play of Man (NewYork: Appleton, 1901).

best able to cope with the prevail-ing environment, and whose off-spring can adapt to changing condi-tions. For Groos, animals play be-cause play is functional in thestruggle forsurvival;play formspro-vide practice in perfecting skillsneeded in adult life. Play, then, isthe generalized impulse to practiceand perfect hereditary skills beforea serious need to exercise themarises. Accordingto Loizos, the mostcommonly accepted theoryof play isthe view that it is practice foradult activity.30A related theory about instinctualbehavior has frequently been ad-vanced to support sport. The notionthat aggression is a human instinctand thus its expression is inevitableunderlies the work of a number ofpsychiatrists, psychologists, andethologists. These scholars havesuggested that sport serves as anexcellent medium for expelling theaggressive instinct, and that sportshould be encouraged since it pro-vides humans with a way to "letoff steam" in a socially wholesomeway. J. P. Scott claims that "violentexercise is nature's tranquilizer."And, "In short, games and sport aretraining grounds for the control ofaggression"'31Ethologist, AnthonyStorr, argues "that the encourage-ment of competition . . . is likelyto diminish the kind of hostilitywhich leads to war. . .32 Finally,esteemed ethologist, KonradLorenz,claims that the "most important

30. C. Loizos, "Play Behavior in HigherPrimates: A Review," Primate Ethology ed.D. Morris (Garden City, NY: Doubleday,1969), pp. 226-285.31. J. P. Scott, "Sport and Aggression,"Gerald S. Kenyon, ed. Contemporary Psy-chology of Sport (Chicago: The Athletic In-stitute, 1970), pp. 11-24.32. Anthony Storr, Human Aggression(New York: Atheneum, 1968), p. 132.

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SPORT AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCESfunction of sport lies in furnishinga healthy safety valve" for the ag-gression instinct.33Developmental and cognitivefunctions

Social scientists, such as JeanPiaget, George Herbert Mead, andJerome Bruner, have emphasizedthe function of play in the develop-mental and cognitive growth ofchildren. As part of his work onthe cognitive development of chil-dren, Piaget has analyzed playbehavior in relation to the develop-ment of intelligence. According tohim, each cognitive stage exhibits aunique type of play form. In thesensory-motorstage, play is charac-terized by performance of recentlymastered motor abilities. Duringthe preoperational phase of develop-ment, symbolic play dominates andthe child engages in make-believeand sociodramaticactivities, such asacting "as if" he/she were a mother,doctor, and so forth. Games-with-rules characterize the concrete oper-ational phase, whereby collectivesymbols are promoted and reason-ing and logical thought are nur-tured, thus preparing the child forthe final formal operational cogni-tive phase. Piaget statedthatgames-with-rules "mark he decline of chil-dren's games and the transition toadult play, which ceases to be avital function of the mind when theindividual is socialized."34For Pia-get, the practice of rules and theconsciousness of rules, both ofwhich are associated with play andgames, are largely learned in the

33. Konrad Lorenz, On Aggression (NewYork: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1966), p.281.34. Jean Piaget, Play, Dreams and Imita-tion in Childhood, trans. C. Cattegno and F. M.Hodgson (New York: Norton, 1962), p. 168.

play environment and thus servevaluable functions in the largersocial context.Mead saw play and games asserving an important function inthe development of the self. Amajorconcern of Mead was to deter-mine how the individual obtains fulldevelopment of self, and he pro-posed two general stages. Play,according to Mead, contributes tothe first stage because in play thechild takes on and acts out roleswhich exist in the immediate, butalso wider social world; and in thecourse of acting out such roles helearns to "stand outside himself,"and thus develop a reflected viewof himself as a social object dis-tinct from but related to others.Games, on the other hand, con-tribute to the second stage in thedevelopment of self. In a game, thechild must take the role of everyplayer, thus he must perceive whatothersare doing in order to makehisown movements. As the child learnsto take the attitude of the otherand permits that attitude of theother to guide what he is going todo with reference to a common end,he is becoming an organic memberof society. According to Mead:"The game is ... an illustrationof the situation out of which anorganized personality arises."35Erik Erickson, whose work isgenerally considered within thepsychoanalytic radition,emphasizedthe growthfunctionsplay mayserve.Ericksonproposedthree stages of in-fantile play that are linked withhis general theory of psychosexualdevelopment. The firstplay stage iscalled autocosmic and consists of"explorationby repetition of sensual

35. George H. Mead, Mind, Self, and So-ciety (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1934), p. 159.

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THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

perceptions, of kinesthetic sensa-tions, of vocalizations, etc." At thesecond stage, the microspheric stage,play is typically solitary, is charac-terized by play with toys, and occurswhen the child "needs to overhaulhis ego." Play at this stage leads topleasure in mastery of toys andmastery of traumas projected onthem. Play in the macrosphere, thethird stage, occurs at nursery schoolage and is "the world shared byothers" which "are treated as, areinspected, run into, or forced to behorsie."36Jerome Bruner, the most notedcontemporary American cognitivepsychologist, is well known for hisprolific research on cognitive growthand the educational process. Brunercontends that random play is themain business of infancy and child-

hood and is the precursor of adultcompetence. Play makes possiblethe practice of subroutines of be-havior that later come together in use-ful problem solving and creativity.37Mastery function

Sigmund Freud emphasized thatchildren act out and repeat proble-matic situations in play in order tomaster them.38 According to thisview, play enables the child to dealwith anxiety evoking situations byallowing him to be the active masterof the situation, rather than thepassive victim. Freud also proposed

36. Erik H. Erickson, Childhood and So-ciety (New York: Norton, 1963).37. Jerome Bruner, Alison Jolly, and KathySylva, eds. Play: Its Role in Evolution andDevelopment (New York: Penguin, 1976).38. Helen B. Schwartzman, "The Anthro-pological Study of Children's Play," AnnualReview of Anthropology, vol. 5, ed. BernardJ. Siegel, Alan R. Beals, and Stephen A. Tyler(Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews, 1976), pp.289-328.

that the wishes and conflicts ofeach of the psycho-sexual stageswould be expressed in play. Finally,since Freud believed that all chil-dren aspire to adult status, theyimitate adults in their play, thusmaking possible what is currentlyimpossible and enabling them tomaster a frustrating situation.39The studies of John Roberts andhis collaborators comprise the mostwidely cited cross-cultural investi-gations of games, and their workemphasizes the function of games incultural mastery. In their now classicarticle "Games in Culture," Robertsand his colleagues constructed a clas-sification of games based on how thegame outcome is determined. Threetypes of games are identified: gamesof physical skill, games of strategy,and games of chance. Based on theiranalysis of ethnographic data of 50tribal societies, and applying theirthree-category classification ofgames, they concluded that gamesare expressive cultural activitiessimilar to music and folktales; more-over, they are models of variouscultural activities and thus exercisesin cultural mastery. For example,games of physical skill are relatedto mastery of specific environmen-tal conditions, games of strategy arerelated to the mastery of the socialsystem, and games of chance are re-lated to mastery of the super-natural.40Building on this work, Robertsand Sutton-Smith, in a cross-culturalstudy of children's games, formu-

39. Sigmund Freud, Beyond the PleasurePrinciple (New York: Bantam, 1959); Jokesand Their Relation to the Unconscious. (NewYork: Norton, 1963).40. John Roberts, Malcolm J. Arth, andRobert R. Bush, "Games in Culture," Ameri-can Anthropologist 61 (August 1959):597-605.

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SPORT AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCESlated a "conflict-enculturation" the-ory of games to explain relation-ships existing between types ofgames, child-training variables, andcultural variables.41 In essence thistheory proposes that conflict pro-duced by specific child-rearing tech-niques in a culture lead to aninterest and involvement of specifictypes of game activities which pat-tern this conflict in the role-reversalssanctioned by the game rules. More-over, according to Sutton-Smith:"Involvement over time in theserewarding game patterns leads tomastery of behaviors which havefunctional value or transfer to cul-turally useful behavior."42In view of the current interestin female participation in sports,it is appropriate to note that chil-dren's play as functional to thelearning and practicing of culturallyappropriate sex roles has beenstudied by a number of scholarsin several of the social sciences.The work of Sutton-Smith andRosenberg on the historical changesin the game preferences of Ameri-can children and the developmentof sex differences in play choicesduring the preadolescence illus-trates how sex role differentiationis reflected in play activities ofboys and girls and how changingcultural prescriptions of appropriatesex role behaviors is reflected in

41. John M. Roberts and Brian Sutton-Smith, "Child Training and Game Involve-ment," Ethnology 1 (1962):166-185; BrianSutton-Smith and John M. Roberts, "TheCross-Cultural and Psychological Study ofGames," in Gunther Luschen, ed., The Cross-CulturalAnalysis of Sport and Games (Cham-paign, IL: Stipes, 1970), pp. 100-108.42. Brian Sutton-Smith, "Towards an An-thropology of Play," The Association for theAnthropological Study of Play, NEWSLET-TER 1 (Fall 1974):10.

changes in play preferences.43Lever's recent studies of sex differ-ences in children's play and gamebehavior suggests that these dif-ferences may give males "an ad-vantage in occupational milieus thatshare structural features with thosegames."44 Thus, the complex gamesof childhood may be functional tosuccessful participation in the adultoccupational world.Social integration function

Human social structures are heldtogether by normative integrationand shared symbolic meaning. Func-tional explanations for sport fre-quently identify sport's presumedsocial integrating function. The ideahere is that sports teams bind in-dividuals to a common cause, de-veloping loyalty to and an identifica-tion with the organizations of whichthe team is a part. Thus, highschool and college teams, profes-sional teams, and Olympic teamsare seen as binding people to theschool, college, city, and nation.Moreover, the ritual and ceremonywhich is a part of sport serves toreinforce the values of society, andthus promotes integration. The inte-grating function of sport for Ameri-can society has been summarizedby Cozens and Stumpf:Common interests, common loyalties,

43. Brian Sutton-Smith and B. G. Rosen-berg, "Sixty Years of Historical Change in theGame Preferences of American Children,"Journal of American Folklore 74 (1961):17-46; Brian Sutton-Smith, B. C. Rosenberg, andE. F. Morgan, Jr., "Development of Sex Dif-ferences in Play Choices During Preadoles-cence," Child Development 34 (1963):119-126.44. Janet Lever, "Sex Differences in theComplexity of Children's Play and Games,"American Sociological Review 43 (August1978):482.

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THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYcommon enthusiasms-these are thegreat integrating factors in any culture.In America, sports have provided thiscommon denominator in as great adegree as any other factor . . . infurnishing cultural interest, fosteringunderstanding across class lines, andincreasing the intimacy of associationwith different classes spectator sportshave contributed to those integratingforces which are vital and indispensablein the preservation of our democraticway of life.45Polish sociologist, Andrzej Wohl,echoes the same theme. He says:"... competitive sports has . . .been turned into an instrumentpromoting national integration, re-flecting national aspirations andachievements. This lofty function ofcompetitive sport as a means toawaken national consciousness andnational pride is no secret for any-body any more."46Socialization function

In order to integrate persons fullyinto society, the society must pro-vide ways and means for appro-priate socialization. Various socialagents and agencies typically per-form this function, the outcome ofwhich is the learning and internal-ization of the societal values, norms,and behaviors on the part of theindividual.47 According to sociolo-gists Harry Edwards, sport is "A so-cial institution which has primaryfunctions in disseminating and rein-forcing the values regulating be-

45. Frederick Cozens and Florence'Stumpf,Sports in American Life (Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 1953).46. Andrzej Wohl, "Competitive Sportand its Social Functions," International Re-view of Sports Sociology 5 (1970):123.47. William M. Dobringer, Social Struc-tures and Systems (Pacific Palisades, CA:Goodyear, 1969).

havior . . . and determining ac-ceptable solutions to problems inthe secular sphere of life."48 Simi-larly, Walter Schafer has argued thatsport socializes "the athlete into estab-lished mainstream cultural and be-havioral patterns of society and inthis way contributes to the stability,maintenance, and perpetuation ofthe established society.49One of the oldest and most per-sistent claims with respect to sport'srole in socialization is that sport"builds character," which has typi-cally implied that behavioral dis-positions such as courage, self-discipline, leadership, cooperation,loyalty, and honesty are nurturedthrough sport participation. Oneexample of this belief is Pattersonand Hallberg's statement: "Throughathletic participation students gainmany qualities for effective citi-zenry."50 Aside from the undocu-mented essays by physical educa-tors and a few social scientists,this contention has typically beendocumented through testimonials

48. Harry Edwards, Sociology of Sport(Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press, 1973).49. Walter Schafer, "Sport and Youth Coun-terculture: Contrasting Socialization Themes"in Social Problems in Athletics ed. DanielM. Landers (Chicago: University of IllinoisPress, 1976), p. 184; also see Walter Schafer,"Sport, Socialization, and the School: TowardMaturity or Enculturation?" presented at theThird International Symposium on Sociologyof Sport, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 1971.50. Ann Patterson and Edmond C. Hall-berg, Background Readings for Physical Edu-cation (New York:Holt, Rinehart, and Winston,1965); also see American Association forHealth, Physical Education, and Recreation,Athletics in Education (Washington, DC:AAHPER, 1962); Leonard A. Larson, "WhySports Participation?" Journal of Health,Physical Education, and Recreation 35 (Jan-uary 1964):36-37, 42-43; Joseph Oxendine,"Social Development: The Forgotten Objec-tive," Journal of Health, Physical Educationand Recreation 37 (May 1966):23-24.

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SPORT AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCESof successful businessmen and mili-tary leaders, describing how theirsports experiences were responsiblefor their achievements in businessor war.Social control function

The notion that sport has a socialcontrol function also has a longhistory. Almost 50 years ago sociolo-gist Willard Waller suggested thatone of the primary functions of inter-school sports was to help controlstudents' behavior. He observed the"use of athletics may simplify theproblem of police work in theschools. . . . Athletes . . . are thenatural leaders, and they are leaderswho can be controlled and ma-nipulated through the medium ofathletics."51The theory that aggressive tend-encies of people need a sociallysanctioned outlet has led some socialscientists to suggest that sport canserve this social control function.Two well-known sociologists, Gerthand Mills, have argued:Manymassaudience situations,withtheir"vicarious" enjoyments, serve psycho-logically the unintended function ofchanneling and releasing otherwise un-placable emotions. Thus great volumesof aggressionare"cathartically"eleasedby crowds of spectators cheering theirfavorite stars of sport-and jeering theumpire.52

A related dimension to the issueof sport for social control is the ideathat sport is an opiate of the people,an adaptation to Marx's contentionthat "religion is an opiate of the

51. Willard Waller, The Sociology of Teach-ing (New York: Wiley, 1932), p. 116.52. Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills, Char-acter and Social Structure (New York: Har-court Brace Jovanovich, 1954).

masses." In 1934 Parry suggestedthat sport was an instrument withwhich the mass of population couldbe kept in check, awed, or distracted.According to him, sport would "allaysocial unrest and lessen the possibil-ity of political uprisings.53 In thatsame year in his book Technics andCivilization, Mumford contendedthat modern sport no longer had anyof the characteristics of play and hadbecome a spectacle that served onlyto promote the existing social orderby providing a temporary distractionfrom the highly structured, standard-ized, mechanized world.54 More re-cently, Hoch has argued that con-temporary sport is an instrument ofmonopolistic capitalism which . . ."robs people of their power to makedecisions and their creativity, andsets them in search of opiates in con-sumption and entertainment."55 InHoch's view contemporary sport thusserves as a mass narcotic-an opiate.Personal-expressivefunction

Our discussion of the functions ofplay, games, and sports have focusedon the instrumental functions thatthese activities are presumed to have-meaning that the various playforms are a means to some end whichis not the participation itself. It seemsappropriate to end this discussion ofthe functions of play, games andsports by noting that some socialscientists have proposed that "sportneeds no other justification than itprovides a setting for sociability and

53. Albert Parry. "Sports" in Edwin R. Se-ligmann and Alvin Johnson, eds., Encyclope-dia of the Social Sciences, vol. 3 (New York:Macmillan, 1934) p. 306.54. Lewis Mumford. Technics and Civili-zation. (New York: Harcourt-Brace, 1934).55. Paul Hoch, Rip Off the Big Game (Gar-den City, NY: Doubleday, 1972).

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THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYfun."56 This emphasis on the per-sonal-expressive function of play,games, and sports views these activi-ties as basically existential experi-ences that provide joy, self-satisfac-tion, and self-fufillment. That instru-mental concerns have distorted ornegated the rich potential that playforms have for nurturing expressive-

56. Alan G. Ingham and John W. Loy, Jr."The Social System of Sport:A HumanisticPerspective," Quest 19 (Winter 1973):7.

ness is decried by these scholars, andthey are beginning to produce agrowing body of literature promotingthe personal-expressive potential ofplay, games and sport.5757. See, for example, Dorothy J. Allen andBrian W. Fahey, Being Human in Sport (Phil-adelphia: Lea and Febiger, 1977); MihalyCsikszentmihalyi, Beyond Boredom and Anx-iety (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1975);Benjamin Lowe, The Beauty of Sport (Engle-wood Cliffs: NJ Prentice-Hall, 1977).

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