5 ms·
I don't think the article answers the question it presents. The only answer it seems to provide is "When cultures disappear, their sports disappear with them."
by mod 10y ago
I don't think the article answers the question it presents.
The only answer it seems to provide is "When cultures disappear, their sports disappear with them."
I think the answer to the question in the title would also answer a lot of similar questions:
"Why do some car makers vanish and some survive?"
"Why do some board games vanish and some survive?"
"Why do some X vanish and some survive?"
- caminante 10y ago> I don't think the article answers the question it presents. You sure? I didn't need to read further than this quote to answer "Why do sports die?": "In areas adjacent to their temples, young men engaged in a ball game, known as ōllamaliztli, that concluded with the bloody sacrifice of one of the players upon the temple’s altar. Whether the sacrificed player was a winner or a loser we shall never know." I wouldn't try out for that sport ;-).
- red-indian 10y agoThese are my cousins. I disagree with this characterization of our ball game. It's a racist interpretation by ignorant white anthropologists who simply publish sensationalist nonsense with no understanding, nor desire for understanding.
- jitix 10y agocan you please elaborate? was the statement that people were sacrificed incorrect?
- x3n0ph3n3 10y agoHe's trolling. Edit: After reading their comment history, maybe not..
- compiler-guy 10y agoHere is the author's CV: https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/aguttmann https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/aguttmann It's pretty impressive. It seems unlikely to me that he is ignorant and has no desire for understanding. It's possible he is wrong--lots of people are about lots of topics. This is his specialty, but I (and likely no one else around) am in no position to evaluate his claims. So rather than calling him names and insulting him, tell us why he is wrong, or reference additional source material, or something. A simple web-link will do. I mean this in all sincerity. Name calling doesn't stop ignorance, education does.
- red-indian 10y agoI am unclear what about his background as a professor at a university proudly named after the hard core genocidist Lord Jeffery Amherst makes you believe he is a qualified informant in these specific issues? Can you explain? Thank you.
- EnFinlay 10y agoI don't see how the name of the university is a knockout blow to his credibility. What is your source of credibility, other than a vaguely racist username and declaration of kinship?
- red-indian 10y agoHuh?
- prawn 10y agoYou might want to retract "vaguely racist username" and read this very interesting post by @red-indian about names for the indigenous populations of North America. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10829124 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10829124
- EnFinlay 10y agoNow this opens up a whole other thing. The comment you linked mentions that it is considered rude in Canada (which is where I'm from). But it also explains why it is used. I apologize for any accusations explicit or implicit in saying "vaguely racist username".
- x3n0ph3n3 10y agoMaybe you'd like to explain how one might understand human sacrifice in the context you'd prefer?
- aaron695 10y agoYes it's BS, good point. But you seem to have the same problem. It's not your ball game unless you're a time traveler who invented the primitive game X years ago from a society that no doubt killed gays and treated women like shit as all societies did back then and some still do.
- ced 10y agoNot to comment on this particular debate, but I was curious about how homosexuals were treated in native populations, and it's quite interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Spirit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Spirit http://www.firstpeople.us/articles/the-two-spirit-people-of-indigenous-north-americans.html http://www.firstpeople.us/articles/the-two-spirit-people-of-...
- billskills 10y agoTwo-spirit !== homosexual Also, Maya !== North American First Nations