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Body Relationships in an UrbanAdventure SettingAlcyane Marinho a & Heloisa Bruhns aa Universidade Estadual de Campinas , Sao Paulo, BrazilPublished online: 19 Aug 2006.

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Leisure Studies,Vol. 24, No. 3, 223–238, July 2005

ISSN 0261–4367 (print)/ISSN 1466–4496 Online/05/030223–16 © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group LtdDOI: 10.1080/0261436052000327234

Body Relationships in an Urban Adventure Setting

ALCYANE MARINHO and HELOISA TURINI BRUHNSUniversidade Estadual de Campinas, Sao Paulo, BrazilTaylor and Francis LtdRLST100196.sgm10.1080/0261436052000321294

(Received June 2003; revised February 2004; accepted October 2004)Leisure Studies0261-4367 (print)/1466-4496 (online)Original Article2005Taylor & Francis Ltd2400000002005Dr AlcyaneMarinhoAvenida 8, 1837 apto 74, Edificio Jardim Claret, CEP 13503-210Rio ClaroSao PauloBrazilalcyaneguilherme@vivax.com.br

ABSTRACT This article discusses the relationships established among bodies as revealed by aspecific sports practice – sports climbing. The reflections presented here are part of a broaderresearch project,1 whose starting point is the Sports Climbing Group, Grupo de Escalada Esportiva(GEEU), of Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), São Paulo, Brazil. A socio-culturalstandpoint is taken on the findings of an investigation into the area of leisure studies. In seeking tounderstand the interrelations between body, leisure and adventure, our focus on a sports climbingwall enabled us to reflect on the broader relationships established in contemporary society, whichpossess not only a character of reproduction and conservation, but also and equally one of resistanceto and contestation of the predominant values. In this process of understanding, we see the climbingbodies involved in a constant dialectic. On the one hand, one sees a commercialization of the ‘spiritof pleasure’ or its use for the purposes of reward. On the other hand, these same bodies translate apleasure expressed by an irrepressible desire to live by learning through activity, based on experi-mentation through everyday adventures fraught with calculated risks, and in which a certain sensiti-zation is manifested, revealing knowledge of the environment as decoded through corporealinformation.

Introduction

Some of the widely diverse forms of relationships in which human beings todayengage have generated and brought together specific interests that contribute to theformation of groups with particular profiles. This paper highlights those of the newurban groups involved in the practice of sports climbing, discussed here within thecontext of adventure activities. The contemporary practice of these activities hasbeen found to take place both in nature and in artificial environments. The term‘adventure activities’ was chosen to describe particular sports practices manifestedin everyday life. The unique characteristics of such activities set them apart fromtraditional sports, since the conditions for their practice, the objectives, themotivation and the means used to develop them are different, involving the use of

Correspondence Address: Dr Alcyane Marinho, Avenida 8, 1837 apto 74, Edificio Jardim Claret, CEP 13503-210, Rio Claro, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Email: alcyaneguilherme@vivax.com.br

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innovative technological equipment, which offers greater fluidity between theperson engaged in the practice and the space in which it is utilized. The presenceof risk (often imaginary), of adventure, and of uncertainty, is manifested during theindividual’s participation in these activities.

From the start, it should be noted that sports practices have always been engagedin both in natural and in constructed environments. However, the collective formsin adventure activities, and the use of technological equipment that facilitates bothaccess and practice, have emerged as a recent phenomenon. One perceives today arevaluing of contact with nature, demonstrated by attempts at reconciliationthrough some practices in the natural medium. At the same time there can be seena manifestation of the ‘reinvention’ of climbing within the urban context, experi-enced with its particular aesthetics and corporeal dialogues. Urban sports practices,among which such climbing is situated, present a strong component of play andshould be understood in their own contexts, according to their different codes,behaviors and meanings, since they are experiences involving shared emotionswith particular specificities (Marinho & Bruhns, 2001a). These adventure activi-ties can be viewed from the perspective of leisure, taking into account the profoundstructural changes in the organization of work and of life as a whole (Magnani,2000). From the perspective of leisure, these reflections can be extended to encom-pass the dynamics of society as well as more general values.

For our discussion here, we have chosen the Grupo de Escalada Esportiva(GEEU) climbing wall located at the Faculty of Physical Education ofUniversidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), in Campinas, São Paulo,Brazil. These reflections are part of a broader research initiative, which investi-gated the meaning of the activity for those who practice it, the forms of organi-zation involved or implied, and the use and appropriation of the space, amongother aspects. We have focused on the physical aspects of the activity, whichinvolve issues such as the relation between leisure and pleasure, the meaning ofthe ‘hero’, the use of technology, and forms of contact and relationships. Withinits limits, this article attempts to explore these issues, selecting sports climbingas an activity that reveals the relation between body and identity within aspecific social context: an identity that is constructed, constantly remade andrevised within a group context in which emotions are shared and the body issubjected to experimentation and demands in an intimate relationship with theobject to be climbed. This experimentation, at times, acquires a playful naturerelated with a collective ethics. At other times, when the situation is moredemanding on the climber and challenges and risks (albeit calculated) appeargreater, the climber’s sense of ‘ordeal’ is heightened, requiring more careful andprecise maneuvers.

As we shall see, this corporeal experimentation, shared within a group context,leads to the emergence of a series of identity-related elements associated with thebody of the climber. These elements are expressed through clothing, ways ofcommunicating, physical contact, and equipment (boots, running shoes, climbingshoes, etc.). The climbing body is always seeking flexibility and lightness, aspectsthat become requisites relating not only to the corporeal aspects of the activity, butalso to its symbolic ones, building the socio-cultural meanings of the climbingbody.

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Body Relationships in an Urban Adventure Setting 225

Research Methods

Fifteen regular members of the GEEU, located at the Faculty of Physical Educationof UNICAMP in Campinas, State of São Paulo, Brazil, participated in thisresearch. The research was conducted at the university, primarily during the climb-ing activity, and also outside it, on some trips into nature. In addition, outside ofthe climbing periods, individual meetings were arranged with the members of thegroup, according to their availability. This research project started in 1999 after wemet the subjects at the UNICAMP campus. All the individuals were universitystudents, aged 20–30 years, majoring in either Physical Education, Economics,Engineering or Biology. Most were full-time students attending lectures andclasses both in the mornings and in the afternoons. Some of them were interns atlocal companies after their class time, and a few of them held jobs in fitnesscenters, companies, and laboratories. This research involved both men and women,and did not attempt to draw a distinction between climbers with greater or lesserexperience or between those with a higher or lower climbing grade, although it isinteresting to mention that even though all of the individuals climbed indoor walls,they also were used to practising other types of climbing such as sport climbing andbouldering, especially when they traveled to areas offering these modalities ofclimbing. It is also important to add that the climbers’ levels of experience andinterest in climbing varied enormously within the group.

The discussions presented herein are part of an investigation into an area ofleisure studies focusing on a cultural approach, underpinned by the system of refer-ences of cultural analysis proposed by Geertz (1989), using interviews and partic-ipatory observation as data collection resources (Brandão, 1988; Severino, 1992).The cultural analysis starts from the informal logic of the subjects’ lives, seekingto draw comprehensive conclusions from minor, but strongly intertwined, factsand to portray the role of culture in the construction of collective life based onstatements found in complex specifications.

The technique employed for data collection was participatory observationwhich, as Brandão (1988, pp. 9–16) has pointed out, involves a situation of relativeproximity to the individual studied. The sample was strategic, chosen according tosocial representativeness and availability; thus, it did not involve a statistical anal-ysis. Participatory observation requires the researcher’s presence during the activ-ity, where she/he clearly states her/his (research) intentions and objectives. Theresearcher’s participation in the activity is part of the research process and as suchis guided by strategic and tactical considerations concerning the research.

There is no single model for participatory observation; it has to be adapted ineach case to the conditions of the particular concrete situation (the resources, thelimitations, the sociopolitical context, the objectives pursued etc.). However, somephases were pre-established. The first consisted of the institutional set-up of theresearch, in which the object to be studied was outlined and the theoretical frame-work defined (concepts, objectives etc.). The second consisted of a preliminaryand provisional study of the social group involved to identify its profile, based onits history (this work enabled us to make an initial differentiation of the character-istics of the group being studied, according to the members of which it wascomprised). The third phase identified the group, seeking its specificity, its internal

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logic, its contradictions and conflicts, and recognition of its problems. The group’sintrinsic problems regarding the theme proposed for investigation were identifiedand delimited to it internally.

Behaviors, languages and expressions were recorded in a field log, attempting tocollect the maximum amount of data on the proposed objectives and on the themeto be investigated. The data were grouped according to specific themes such as thegroup’s history, composition, network of relations, constitution of the space, andcorporeal aspects involving equipment, clothing, physical requisites, gender rela-tions, among others. The interviews, based on qualitative research, used a free andsemi-structured approach. These interviews were conducted both in the areaswhere the subjects practised wall climbing and in other places, such as in theirclassrooms, homes, and cafeterias, according to the availability of the inter-viewees. After each interview, the data were examined according to Geertz’sconceptualization (1989) of culture as a network of relations woven by humansthemselves, and of the need to understand how concepts gain specificities in agiven context, according to the social weave in which they are involved.

Starting from this methodological construction, we sought the meaning of thepractice performed by the GEEU climbers. We sought to understand, identify andinvestigate the relations, values and meanings that permeate the climbing activity,as well as the conceptions that guide it, which are responsible for the constructionof this concrete ‘reality’ – the climbing wall. In the search for this understanding,both the climbers and their ‘reality’ became increasingly logical and unique,enabling us to set forth some of the conclusions extracted from this research. Thequest for this understanding, particularly here, where the focus is on a sportsclimbing wall, may offer a clue for the examination of broader relations estab-lished in contemporary society, which possess not only a character of repro-duction and conservation, but equally one of resistance and contestation in face ofthe predominant values, such as competitiveness, commitment, individuality andso on.

New Heroes of Daily Life

Leisure, seen as social time and space, has culturally and historically involvednotions of freedom, relaxation, and pleasure, among so many others. But, as notedby Gutierrez (2002), the ambiguous and conflicting nature of these ideas is oftenignored. In addition to the socio-cultural construction involved in these notions,they also contain a strong element of subjectivity. Contrasting with values attrib-uted to ordered life, to productivity and to frugality, we agree with Featherstone(1997) about the existence of contemporary values ascribed to consumption, toplay and to hedonism. These play a part in how adventure activities are experi-enced. The discourse of the coveted ‘space of pleasure’ (always associated withfreedom) is manifested through these fleeting adventure activities.

On the question of pleasure, Urry (1996), drawing from Bourdieu, shows howemergent groups, called ‘new bourgeois’, that have sprung up from the service classand other white-collar workers, display an approach to pleasure. The old bourgeois,he states, ‘bases its life on a morality of duty and fears pleasure’. Its relation withthe body is one of reservation, ‘decorousness’, ‘restrictions’, associating the

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Body Relationships in an Urban Adventure Setting 227

satisfaction of forbidden impulses with guilt. This new middle class group, on theother hand:

…extols a morality of pleasure as a duty. This doctrine transforms ‘not having fun’ into failure,into a threat to self-esteem,…pleasure is not only allowed but also required, based not only onethics but also on science. (Urry, 1996, p. 127)

A romantic vision is evoked in the imaginary search for pleasure linked to theimage of the product, with the essential activity of consumption not consistingsolely of the selection, acquisition or actual use of the products. Romanticism, inthe words of Featherstone (1998, p. 45), ‘focuses on imagination, fantasy, mysti-cism, creativity and emotional exploration’. Thus, the pleasure desired or obtainedfrom these adventures may no longer express an obsession for social status, but anillusory joy stimulated by fantasy. However, this romanticism does not worksimply as a set of ideas inducing emotional expression through fantasy and day-dreaming, translated into the desire for new products to feed aspirations. It is alsogenerated from the tensions among given social classes and groups trying toconquer social spaces where relations of power are manifested.

The ideas that characterize leisure have been contested constantly and trans-formed into a panorama in which daily life should not be understood as a stage formechanized and rigid practices, for they contain multiple potentialities (Marinho,2003). Featherstone (1997, p. 82) states that the concept of everyday life iscomplex and difficult to define because, according to him, daily life supplies thebasis for the emergence of our concepts, definitions and narratives. ‘Quotidian life’seems to be a residual category into which all the fragments and pieces are placed,and do not fit into ordered thinking. In the face of this inherent ambiguity, it wouldbe more appropriate to outline the characteristics so frequently associated to it.Daily life should be understood as an historically defined process, with an empha-sis on daily tasks, beliefs and practices, highlighting the present moments thatcontain a non-reflexive sense of immersion into the immediateness of commonexperiences and activities. Continuing with Featherstone’s ideas (1997, p. 83),daily life also contains an emphasis on sociability experienced as play, in whichthe multiplicity of behaviors and heterogeneous knowledge are valued.

In his writings, Maffesoli (1995, 1996) refers to qualities of daily life, pointingout possibilities of resistance in the face of the process of rationalization, wheresociability is promoted in an intensification of the moment: a process he calls‘power of socialness’, in which the present, frivolous and imaginative forms oflife provide a sense of collectivity, reacting to individualism. These moments canbe observed in the experimentations on the climbing wall, for in this ‘game’ ofclimbing a wall, life briefly becomes a form of free action, devoid of subsequentulterior purposes. The heroic act of climbing emerges as a simulacrum, for onecan see in these sports a certain dose of ‘courage’, a ‘proving something tooneself’, and a yearning for extraordinary goals. In the figure of the hero as asimulacrum there is the possibility of transgression or rejection of the order, unlikein quotidian life, which is centered on the mundane, the ordinary. Heroic life, inthe words of Featherstone (1997, p. 87), ‘not only threatens the possibility ofreturning to daily routines, but also implies putting one’s very life at risk’, for itlies within the sphere of danger, of risks that are taken, of violence (represented

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here by the struggle to remain unhurt, whether on hangs, at heights, due to possi-ble falls, injuries or fears).

However, this picture of the hero, or even of a simulacrum of the hero, lacksimages of dedication to some impersonal cause, of a rationalizing and justifyingself-representation (exalting the virtues of sacrifice, distinction, discipline, self-denial). Thus emerges a non-stoical heroism in which a series of adventures or thequality of an adventure is shared in a yielding to the ‘world’s powers and accidents,which may delight us but also destroy us’, (Simmel 1971a, p. 193). In this context,therefore, the adventurer appears to wield the gestures of the conqueror, buildinga system based on the absence of a system in his life.

These new heroes, therefore, are ordinary everyday people who work, have fun,study; who do not, in short, lead a life of sacrifices destined to a great cause, butwho embark on minor adventures within the urban space itself, such as climbingan artificial wall, roaming the city in the ‘wee’ hours of the morning, participatingin nocturnal rituals such as contemplating the moon, and so on. It is interesting tonote that other studies, such as that of Kiewa (2002), though dealing specificallywith rock climbing, have also been dedicated to a discussion about the hero. Kiewainvestigates the suggestion that the leisure activity of rock climbing represents acontemporary manifestation of heroic activity, and that the opportunity to engagewith the heroic identity forms part of the attraction of rock climbing. Her researchseeks to develop an understanding of how men and women involved in rock climb-ing negotiated their particular version of the activity within a heroic framework.

The culture of consumerism, on the other hand, in exalting that which makesdaily life aesthetic through the presence of advertising, of the imaginary and thepublicity that permeate the environments, has favored the anti-heroic in an ‘hero-icization’ of the mundane, the prosaic, and the ordinary. If the heroes of the pastwere idols of production, today they are idols of consumption (Kiewa, 2002, p. 99).Featherstone (1998, p. 96), referring to Bologh (1990), discusses how the latteradvocates an ethic of sociability, in contraposition to the ethics of the hero: lessexalted, ‘more open to an egalitarian exploration of play and pleasure with theother, to the immersion and loss of self, rather than a preservation or elevation ofself’. Climbing walls, from this standpoint, may represent a distinguishing factorin the context of the sally against the heroic life, especially if one takes into accountthe diversity of its participants – women, children, adolescents, the elderly and thedisabled3 – who, in a ‘playing form of association’,4 play at being heroes, simulat-ing risks and dangers.

As highlighted elsewhere (Marinho & Bruhns, 2001b), in this practice it waspossible to observe the manifestation of play (even if connected to academic duty),of sociability, of emotions and perceptions, impregnated by everyday tasks, indi-cating new forms of living together in urban space, as well as a differentiated utili-zation of that space. Performing different movements, making demands onnormally unused muscles, or hanging by a single hand or foot are singular physicalexperiences that express the climber’s complicity with his/her own body. Play, inturn, is manifested through this correlation with the body and extends to the spaceexperienced – the climbing wall. The play experienced in climbing (by membersof our research sample) is also linked to their daily routine of tasks, academicassignments and work. In correlating the dynamics of everyday living with a play

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Body Relationships in an Urban Adventure Setting 229

activity, the GEEU climbers experience a composition of dimensions (academic,of friendship, of leisure etc.), demystifying climbing (for them) as a high risk sportand promoting a sort of game experience.

Climbing Bodies and the Use of Technologies

Particular forms of body language were captured in the climbing group sample.This is considered here as an expression of urban culture, which, according toMagnani (1999, p. 3), represents a ‘set of behaviors induced by and required forthe use and enjoyment of equipment, spaces and urban institutions and for theperformance of proper rules of sociability’. Hence, we include in our examinationthe clothing and equipment used by the practitioners, which indicate a closeconnection with aspects of the construction of the practitioners’ identities.

Amongst the climbers, the connotation ‘climb, but preferably be thin, strongetc.’ was detected, despite constant affirmations of the democratic nature of theclimbing space, which ostensibly allows anyone interested in the practice toengage in it. Eduardo, one of the climbers in the group, observed that, despite theexistence of a space designed for people of the most varied physical types with aninterest in climbing, ‘being different’ from the pre-established physical standardscan have implications:

Without intending to, the sport ends up ‘elitizing’ those who practice it. You work with thefight against gravity, you’re climbing; so you end up working with people whose biotype isfavorable for the sport. This happens, unfortunately, even though there are quite a few chubbypeople climbing. (Eduardo)

Therefore, it is important to note that advancements in technology have greatlyincreased participation of groups of individuals such as the disabled, and theelderly, in activities such as climbing. The variety of equipment and the skillsacquired and developed by instructors have allowed these groups to practise climb-ing more safely and more actively. This leads us to Foucault’s (1984, p. 147) asser-tion that power is everywhere, acting in various instances and, hence, in responseto the body’s revolt, a new investment emerges which is no longer a form of controlor repression, but a form of control and stimulation: ‘be naked…but be slim, beau-tiful, tanned!’ A given body type, established according to Western standards, ishighly revered. Its overvaluation has become entrenched in Western society, influ-enced and engendered by, among other factors, the role of the media, and is a deter-minant in processes of the body cult, imbued with narcissistic and hedonisticmeanings. The fields of nature and of culture are being reconfigured as a result ofthis context, in which modifications of the body, aimed at achieving an idealappearance through advanced technologies, aspire increasingly to the superhuman.Borrowing the words of Foucault, this ‘super-man’ design is much less than thedisappearance of existing humans and much more than a change of concept: it isthe emergence of a new form – neither God nor Man, which we all hope will notbe worse than the previous ones.

From this standpoint, some ideas about Haraway’s ‘Manifesto for the cyborgs’(1994) are pertinent. The author attempts to show a potent possibility of social andcultural reinvention – the ‘cyborg’, a hybrid organism, both mechanical and

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organic, a creature linked not only to social reality but also to fiction. As such, thecyborg is a kind of dismantled and reassembled, collective ‘I’ in the post-modernand personal sense, in which communication technologies and biotechnologies arethe crucial instruments in the retraining of our bodies. Le Breton (2003, p. 207)shows us that the paradigm of the cyborg feeds a fascination for the intelligent andalmost alive machine with the compensatory feeling of man’s obsolescence, of theanachronism of a body whose elements deteriorate and display a fearsome fragilityin comparison to machines. In this sense, Haraway (1989) proposes a politicalutopia in which the cyborg undoes all the social ruptures that interfere directly inculture. In a sense, to Haraway, the body is the focus of all suffering and injustice.Thus, she defends its radical elimination to the benefit of machines. In her mani-festo, the author builds an ironic and controversial myth that favors feminism,socialism and materialism. To the author, the cyborg manifests itself as a figure ofsubversion of the inequalities socially constructed between men and women oramong social groups, in a post-human era in which the boundaries of gender aredissolved.

In a similar vein, Le Breton (2003) states that the body is an awkward form thathas made possible a variety of oppressions of sex, class, and so on. In turn, thedissolution of this body, or rather, its supersession by the cyborg, erases all humanimperfections thanks to contemporary information techniques. It is common tocome across reports referring to this theme, as on the cover of Veja magazine (Veja.2000), exploring how ‘The body of the future’ will be: subtle perfection – a newtype of workout, healthy food and less aggressive [plastic] surgery will draw theoutlines of a more beautiful and harmonious body. In parallel, one can point out,based on Maffesoli (1995), how this body of the future will consist not only ofappearance, but will also be a place of seduction and fascination, creating bonds,celebrating pleasure and creativity through aesthetic agreements. Attempts attransformation and maintenance of the body can, in some way, create and expresssocial bonds, reaffirming or denying them.

The Visibility of Climbing Bodies

Starting from these broader and more general references concerning the body, wewill attempt to identify the conception of the climber’s body, for in this body areinscribed numerous (and particular) forms of culture, endowing it with meanings.We are treating the body as a composition with equipment and clothing, asmentioned earlier. Although the climbers of the GEEU group wear appropriateclothing for this practice, following a certain mainstream fashion (pants, shorts andtops produced by the most popular sports trademarks), they displayed indifferenceto them, using worn out clothes such as old sweat suits and basic T-shirts, thusrevealing a sense of renunciation, freedom and simplicity in which the conquest ofthe climbing route was the most important consideration. These climbers’ T-shirtsnormally display prints and logotypes relating to championships and meetspromoted by the group and are usually ordered from specialized clothing manufac-turers. The T-shirts usually display the figure of the main character – the climber– scaling a difficult route, followed by the name of the group and the respectiveevent, in addition to sponsors’ advertisements, when pertinent. These prints show

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that the wearer belongs to a given group of climbers, a reason for pride and ademonstration of the group’s importance, publicity for the GEEU, and also consti-tute an attempt to gain followers and supporters. Climbers also recognize eachother through their clothing, emphasizing a local dimension, as Maffesoli (1996)stated when he referred to the ‘post-modern tribes’. The choice of given articles ofclothing and equipment strengthens the group, expressing interests and particular-ities, thereby building an identity and an affiliation.

Apart from clothing, and based on some customs manifested through simple,spontaneous gestures, one can perceive other particular ways people have ofdemonstrating their presence, such as this one described by Eva, a member of thegroup:

I always drop by to see who’s on the climbing wall; I say ‘hi’ from afar, in a hurry, but I alwayspass by the wall at noon. It’s like a punch card, but it isn’t something I feel an obligationtoward, as in academic life; it’s more like leisure, of which one wants a little for oneself. (Eva)

Other commonly used gestures revealed particular forms of marking presencewithin the group. Through informal greetings or glances, the climbers delimit aspace of recognition, providing visibility among them. The different bodily mani-festations characterize a local space of living together, endowing it with signifi-cance – within the limits of their conflicts and achievements. As Turner (1989, p.33) expressed it, the body is not only concrete and solid, but also illusory and meta-phorical, always present and always distant: ‘a place, an instrument, a surrounding,a singularity and a multiplicity’.

Visiting other, more sophisticated places where the climbing wall can be usedfor a fee (usually calculated according to the length of time the climber spends onthe wall), such as the Casa de Pedra Climbing Gymnasium located in São Paulo,we found that the preferred clothing displayed stronger and brighter colors, withfashionable brands in evidence. The climbers there also wore tight-fitting clotheshighlighting the body’s contours. As in a store window, the spectators (sometimesthe group to which the climber belonged) watched the climber’s performance, andthis – in a space mixed with music, large screens, stores selling equipment andclothes, a bar, and so on – enabled us to detect a very different meaning relating tothe exhibition of bodies.

Although, on the one hand, there is the logic of the taken-for-granted value ofwearing clothes (Villaça & Góes, 1998), on the other there is a symbolic valuedetermined historically and culturally. In specific cases, the climber’s body, signi-fying aesthetics, hedonism and information, undergoes a merchandizing process.5

This reminds one of Turner’s (1989, p. 147) discussion of body merchandizing – aprocess whereby the body becomes the focus of an industry for maintaining thebody’s shape, compulsively reinforced through, for example, fiber-based diets,centers of recreation and entertainment, and weight loss manuals. Hedonistic fasci-nation gives rise to a treatment of the body whereby those involved try to loseweight, work and sleep not for intrinsic enjoyment but to improve their opportuni-ties in sex, at work, and so on. In this situation, it is assumed that social successwill depend on the self’s manipulative capacity, based on appropriate personalabilities, and that success (from the political level to the organization of daily life)will depend on the presentation of an acceptable (physical) image.

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Our bodies do not act in the social world as things ‘in and of themselves’, rathertheir action is always mediated by culture. Culture inscribes itself on our bodies. Itis necessary, therefore, to examine the particular ways by which this occurs indifferent societies. This will include examining the role of images on our percep-tions of the body and the way in which the construction of identities depends onthe construction of the images of bodies, as Featherstone (1998, p. 51) proposes.This implies seeking to overcome the dualism separating the body from culture andfrom social life.

We can evidence our bodies’ dual capacity of seeing and being seen. This dualcapacity constitutes the basis for our judgments about the status and value ofothers, using as a parameter the observation of bodies. At the same time, othersbuild judgments about our status and social values, based on what we say and do(Featherstone, 1998, p. 54) and through their observations of our bodies. This visi-bility plays a role in communication between individuals and at social gatherings.We must also consider the ways in which the body’s form (as well as its variousformal characteristics – volume, vigor, beauty) is culturally encoded to operate asan indicator of social power and prestige. As Featherstone observes (1998, pp. 67–68), no society in history has produced and disseminated as large a volume ofimages of the human body as has contemporary Western society through the printand visual media. Images and replicas of the human body proliferate through thephysical scenery of large cities, shopping malls, and places of recreation. The vastmajority of these images:

…especially those used to sell merchandise and experience through advertisements, areimages of the youth, health and beauty of bodies. A good part of the promotion of fashions, ofthe cosmetics industry and of body care products presents these ideals of bodies as somethingthat should be attained. (Featherstone, 1998, pp. 67–68)

Forms of Relationships and Contacts

Perceiving the body as both a natural and a cultural phenomenon engendersprocesses of subjectivity that can be revealed through the spatial distribution ofplaces and the distance of contacts (Villaça & Góes, 1998). Hence, one can observerules and codes of interaction among bodies. In the specific case of GEEU, it isinteresting to observe the proximity of bodies during the times the wall is open toclimbers. The moment of arrival is usually marked by kisses and hugs. But fromthat moment, owing in part to the diminutive size of the wall, the participantscontinue to touch each other, either to pass over a piece of gear or to help each otherwith some move, through unintentional bumping, or even through a deliberate andaffectionate pinch. In moments when the route is complicated, it is common for aclimber to touch (hold and squeeze) parts of another’s body to teach him/her howa hand or a leg, for instance, should be moved. The following sorts of comment canfrequently be heard: ‘Look, you’ve got to feel this part of your body more than thatone’; ‘Don’t tighten up so much here’ and so on.

The climbers, by perceiving and learning new moves through such touches,potentiate both safety and abilities which serve as aids in performing the routes.These manifestations lead us to the discussions of Sant’Anna (1993) concerningthe need to decipher certain intimacies established by the body in the relationship.

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Such intimacies lead to small subjective revolutions, which can expand perceptionand therefore the opportunities of experiencing the world with greater satisfaction.That is, the experimentation of the bodies themselves opens up possibilities forthem to transform their relationship with the world and with other people, in acontinuing dialogue wherein social roles are constantly reviewed.

We have observed that those outside the group, or the observers, experience asimilar closeness. Among them, some remain for some time to admire the practiceand, after this initial contact, feel encouraged to become climbers. Others watchfrom a distance, adopting an aloof attitude. This leads us to Villaça & Góes’ (1998,p. 76) discussion of the rules of ‘proxemics’,6 sometimes manifested as rites toavoid contact or closeness. In our society, we are not supposed to touch others,save in previously encoded cases (e.g. handshaking or embracing as a form ofgreeting). We should regulate physical contacts, maintaining a distance betweenfaces, looks, bodies. This situation may be reverted, according to Villaça & Góes,by questioning the rules of proxemics and of body behavior through a variety ofmanifestations, creating breaks in them that are manifested by different forms oftouching and communicating.

In the case of the GEEU climbers, owing to the limited space and to the intimacystimulated through the practitioners, their physical contacts show a permissivenessthat expresses the achievement of a collective project, in which one perceives theintention of breaking social norms, not only in regard to the proximity betweenbodies but also to the touching that goes on between them. This situation, in theview of Sant’Anna (1993), may represent the search for mediation between bodiesand environments, and between bodies and other bodies, that can bring them closerrather than separate them further. We could not note any differences within thisgroup and their behavior when they made their trips to nature or when they wereclimbing the wall. However, behavioral differences and the interactions promotedby climbing as a physical activity is a highly interesting issue for further research.

As Santos (1997, p. 255) notes, the question of proximity is not limited to asimple definition involving distance, but refers to the physical closeness betweenpeople in the same environment, in the same set of continuous points, creating aninteraction and strengthening relations. In this relation of observer and practitioner,we perceived an interesting ambiguity: the observers’ glances and gestures demon-strated, on the one hand, a certain fear and uncertainty before they reached a deci-sion (to climb or not) and, on the other hand, a strong desire and interest in theactivity. Thus, proximity can create solidarity, cultural bonds and even identity –not to mention, for the curious or observers, accessible opportunities for experi-mentation.

Some considerations about the female climber’s body deserve to be highlightedhere. In addition to the general opinion that thin bodies represent the ideal body-type for the practice of sports climbing, there are numerous other issues thatpervade the subject of women in climbing. These include the prototype of thestrong male climber and the fear of female climbers becoming ‘masculinized’. Inthis discussion, works such as those of Turner (1989), Heller (1982), McDonoughand Harrison (1978) are revealing. Female subordination, as historically elaboratedand widely accepted, expresses a submissive body, explored and passive, thusstimulating questions and demanding a better understanding about unilateral male

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dominance. Our stance is that the relation between men and women should beunderstood as complementary, and not antagonistic. From this perspective, theclimber’s body expresses a complementarity between genders, as will be shown,since male and female roles are not rigidly separated and defined.

Despite this apparent opportunity for gender equality in climbing, relatively fewwomen (in Brazil) engage in this activity. This lack of women in the sport isconfirmed by data obtained from the Brazilian Climbing and MountaineeringCensus of 1998. Of 765 climbers participating in the survey, 686 were men and 65were women (i.e. women represented less than 10% of Brazilian climbers).7 Thepresence of few women in the practice of climbing may be associated with the factthat the media and people in general equate the activity with aspects of strength,difficulty and danger (seen as male), which may inhibit female participation.Agnes, a member of the GEEU group, however, does not have a definite idea aboutthe existence of few women among climbers, and is in doubt whether they areafraid of the activity or if they consider it too rough:

…women aren’t very brave because it’s really difficult to get there, to go up and look down.There’s something I question myself about a little, though, this thing of relationships; becausesometimes climbing makes one change some old habits. For instance, after I started climbing,by arms got a lot stronger and my hands more callused, more worn than before; I wonder: amI feminine? (Agnes)

This climber’s questioning is quite pertinent to our reflections, for many humanvalues currently seem to be under examination. What is being feminine? What isbeing masculine in a time when clothes are unisex; when hair is short or long forboth genders; when work is being redefined as feminine and feminized, regardlesswhether it is done by men or women? From a statement given by Felipe, anotherof the group’s climbers, one can see that the ‘rule’ that women are too weak topractice climbing does not hold. Because it is an activity that requires very specificskills, one cannot generalize that only male bodies (strong and athletic) are able toperform a given movement during the climb. This is often not the case, for:

…climbing is a very unique sport that involves a particular musculature, and particular equip-ment, so it is, in essence, selective…A very strong guy may come along and not perform well,while a girl (with a good sense of balance, nimbleness, and awareness of her body) mayperform better. I think that that is the main reference when one considers climbing: awarenessof one’s own body. (Felipe)

Further, where the standard conceptions about female roles relate to a model ofmale dominance, often internalized by women themselves, the opposite wasdemonstrated by the group under study, although there were few female partici-pants. As the participants themselves affirmed, sports climbing requires not onlystrength but also technique; and not only technique but also lightness and deli-cateness, regardless of gender. Hanging by only one hand, on tiny holds, alongdifficult routes, both men and women need delicacy and lightness in order toavoid accidents.

Although the trait of delicacy has, for many years, been associated almostexclusively with the female sex, today one can state that, regardless of the field ofaction (political, sports, educational etc.), delicacy (as well as other characteris-tics heretofore attributed solely to women, such as emotion and affection – as

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opposed to the rationality attributed to men) has been manifested and quite oftenbecome a requisite in a variety of human manifestations. In our study, the maleclimbers did not place much importance on the nomenclature: they referred to‘being light’, ‘skillful’ or ‘showing more flair’, deeming it more important torecognize the need for precision moves during climbing. For both sexes, there is aclearly perceptible sensitivity in the climber’s bodies, a mix of the rational andthe emotional. Besides the pleasure of climbing, reaching the top is an achieve-ment which involves patience and perseverance and the specific use of certainmuscles and fingertips. One of the interviewees (Felipe) confirmed the existenceof this sensitivity:

…the clear objective involves many other things, which are: equilibrium (in every sense),strength, serenity, reasoning in order to know the next movement; it isn’t simply a question ofeffort. (Felipe)

In their role of ‘adventurers of the land’, climbers do not typically think of theirhands as a central and primary issue. But in this regard, Lewis (2000) describeshow, historically, hands have been carriers of symbolic value and bearers of mean-ings. They are the key to our definition as ‘Homo faber’ and ‘Homo ludens’ andare responsible for revealing our perceptions of the world. Hands express theknowledge needed for a given type of climbing. Touching with the hands (feeling)is the central sense used by climbers on a route, whether natural or artificial.According to Lewis, climbers perceive (and recognize) a route by tactile orienta-tion. Unlike the feet, which are covered in climbing shoes, the hands here have adirect relationship with the climbing environment. The engagement between thehands and the holds is pure and direct.

For all the climbers, pleasure and pain are mixed in the activity, revealing aquest for and/or the achievement of satisfaction concomitant with a feeling offragility. This reveals a counterpoint to the ideas of Sant’Anna (1993), when shehighlights, contemporaneously, the exaltation of well-being (connected to thedesire for self-control), ignoring feelings of weakness, failure or pain. This wasclearly perceived in the practice of climbing, for, together with the small achieve-ments which bring satisfaction, the climbers come face to face with their limita-tions, their fragilities, which are respected and accepted. Our attempt to uncoverthe conception of the climber’s body has well reflected the observations ofSant’Anna, that:

…to study the body is, among so many possibilities the theme opens up to us, a way of ques-tioning the permanence of old rules such as those of functionality and performance, as well asthe invention of new and as yet little visible coactions. However, studying the body is also away of discovering, together with all the rules and coactions, the emergence of heretofore inex-istent freedoms and pleasures. (Sant’Anna, 1997, p. 277)

The bodies on the climbing wall revealed agility, dexterity, creativity, tension,conflicts and sensibilities, expressing a subjectivity in a constant dialogue withthemselves, with other bodies and with the technological apparatus. The contactwith others and the division of space create a climate in which the exchange of feel-ings and emotions is intense, revealing a strong interaction among the members,who use the group and the equipment to expand their abilities and to exercise theirskills.

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Conclusions

We detected the existence of an ‘urban’ sociability at the climbing wall. Themembers of the group in question organize themselves, attempting to reconciletheir studies, climbing and all their daily activities, maintaining relationships ofaffection and giving meaning to the wall – a place common to them all. This differ-entiates them and renders them unique. These artificial environments emerge asforms of conquering spaces, and are an option of choice for a kind of behaviorpeculiar to a particular social layer. The bonds, the relations of friendship estab-lished there, are strong and long-lasting precisely because of the more direct rela-tionship established with the practice and with the other climbers. The GEEU, likeother urban climbing groups, may be considered part of a movement of resistanceagainst the process of rationalization and against the lack of spaces for companion-able living in the cities, manifesting innovation and creativity, preserving andpromoting sociability as a reaction to individualism.

Perceiving these manifestations in the climbers’ everyday lives allows us toagree with Santos (1997, pp. 225–226) in his discussion about large metropolises.In them, Santos observes, life is conditioned by a series of factors, such as culture,markets, infrastructures and their codes of usage. The division of work representsa conjugation of all these factors rather than merely the economic. Effective inter-change among people is the matrix of social density, constituting the condition forinfinite events, innumerable demands, of relations that accumulate, matrices ofsymbolic exchanges that are multiplied, diversified and renewed. In this view,cities in the most varied situations function as factories of numerous, frequent anddense relationships. These relations manifest forms of corporality, leading us tobelieve that:

…the world of fluidity, the vertigo of speed, the frequency of displacements and the banalityof the movement and the allusions to places and distant things, by contrast, reveal in the humanbeing, the body as a materially sensitive certainty in face of a universe difficult to apprehend.(Santos, 1997, p. 251)

Thus, urban climbers’ bodies, besides revealing elements of commercialization ofthe ‘spirit of pleasure’ or of its use for purposes of reward, also translate a pleasurethat consists in the expression of an irrepressible desire to live, insistent on itssocial space. Here we perceive learning assimilated through contact, learningbased on experimentation, quotidian adventures with calculated risks, manifestinga certain sensitization, revealing a special way of knowing: in other words, knowl-edge of the (social and natural) environment decoded via corporeal information.

Notes

1. Master’s dissertation defended at the Department of Leisure Studies, UNICAMP’s Faculty of PhysicalEducation, in March 2001, under the supervision of Professor Dr Heloisa Turini Bruhns (Marinho, 2001).

2. Discussed in the article ‘Visiting nature, experiencing intensities’ (Visitando a natureza, experimentandointensidades), Bruhns (1998).

3. These, who have never been considered heroes carry a stigma of incompetence. Today however, technologyallows them access to the activities of adventure, proving that throughout history, as Sant’Anna (2000) states,each new technology has contributed, in its own way, to modify the prevailing perception about bodies andtheir gestures, as well as the very actions of those bodies.

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4. According to Simmel (1971b, p. 130), sociability – the ‘playing form of association’ – constitutes a form ofinteraction among people with similar behaviors and life styles, without strictly determined objectives orcontents, in which conversation and play are ends unto themselves.

5. We refer to the exhibitionism of certain bodies displayed in some indoor climbing environments (whichappears contrary to the group studied here). In these environments, the climber is sometimes sponsored andtherefore trains for championships, displaying the sponsors’ brands.

6. A term discussed by Villaça & Góes in terms of the processes of subjectivity involved in the managementand ritualization of the space occupied by the body.

7. Data about this census is available on the web site: www.braziloutdoor.com.br/censo98/result.htm

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