The Wrestler S Body

The Wrestler's Body tells the story of a way of life organized in terms of physical self-development. While Indian wrestlers are competitive athletes, they are also moral reformers whose conception of self and society is fundamentally somatic. Using the insights of anthropology, Joseph Alter writes an ethnography of the wrestler's physique that elucidates the somatic structure of the wrestler's identity and ideology. Young men in North India may choose to join an akhara, or gymnasium, where they subject themselves to a complex program of physical and moral fitness. Alter's first-hand description of each detail of the wrestler's regimen offers a unique perspective on South Asian culture and society. Wrestlers feel that moral reform of Indian national character is essential and advocate their way of life as an ideology of national health. Everyone is called on to become a wrestler and build collective strength through self-discipline.

Illustrations: 15 B/W Illustrations Description: The Wrestler's Body tells us the story of a way of life organized in terms of physical self-development. While Indian wrestlers are competitive athletes, they are also moral reformers whose conception of self and society is fundamentally somatic. In order to elucidate the somatic structure of the wrestler's identity and ideology, Joseph Alter uses the insights of anthropology to write an ethnography of the wrestler's physique. Young men in North India may choose to join an akhara, or gymnasium, where they subject themselves to a complex program of physical fitness. Under the supervision of a guru they become wrestlers by learning how and what to eat, how, when and where to sleep, bathe, defecate, exercise, brush their teeth, and rest, what to wear, and generally how to comport themselves. By these means they not only become competent athletes, they come to develop a moral physique and to embody an ideology of public health. Alter's first-hand description of each detail of the wrestler's regimen is set within the geomoral context of the gymnasium and is framed by a series of interpretations: the place of the body in the relationship between a guru and his disciple; the meaning of patronage as a system of control and support; the embodiment of symbolic structures in the ritual of Nagapanchami; a deconstruction of the embodied self through the drama of tournament competition; and the development of a moral physique modeled on the ironic form and divine structure of Lord Hanuman's body. Wrestling provides a unique perspective on South Asian culture and society. Self-consciously outside the cultural mainstream, it cuts against the weave of the larger cultural fabric. By bringing members of high and low castes into close physical contact, wrestling challenges the principles of purity and pollution. Concepts of general health and fitness are redefined in exaggerated terms. Using the model of sannyasa, or Hindu world renunciation, wrestlers transform the disciplinary mechanisms of asceticism into the terms of somatic nationalism and utopian reform. The body of the wrestler is a focal symbol in the rubric of ethical nationalism. Wrestlers feel that a reform of Indian national character is imperative and that moral reform on this scale can only be achieved through a discipline of the individual body. As such, wrestlers advocate their way of life as an ideology of national health. Everyone is called on to become a wrestler and build collective strength through self-discipline.

The Wrestler's Body tells the story of a way of life organized in terms of physical self-development. While Indian wrestlers are competitive athletes, they are also moral reformers whose conception of self and society is fundamentally somatic. Using the insights of anthropology, Joseph Alter writes an ethnography of the wrestler's physique that elucidates the somatic structure of the wrestler's identity and ideology. Young men in North India may choose to join an akhara, or gymnasium, where they subject themselves to a complex program of physical and moral fitness. Alter's first-hand description of each detail of the wrestler's regimen offers a unique perspective on South Asian culture and society. Wrestlers feel that moral reform of Indian national character is essential and advocate their way of life as an ideology of national health. Everyone is called on to become a wrestler and build collective strength through self-discipline.

Jake and his friends have landed ringside seats for Wrestle Insanity! Andy foolishly switches bodies with Brainiac Bloom just before the match begins, and it's up to Jake to save him from Neutron Newman, the Human Bomb.

Professional wrestling is a strange beast full of contradictions--part live soap opera, part hypermasculine violent spectacle. It is an indelibly American pastime enjoyed by millions and leads a select group of wrestlers to international fame. It's also a sport that leaves many of its athletes broken and battered, at serious risk of addiction, poverty, and early death. Body Drop looks deeply at the nuances of professional wrestling and its strange place within American culture. Brian Oliu offers deeply personal meditations on such topics as disability, chronic pain, body image, masculinity, class, and more, all through the lens of American professional wrestling. Wrestling is a sport that is gleefully fake, but the people who love it are very real. In holding up this particular part of American culture to scrutiny, Oliu acknowledges that the wrestling world, like our own, is one that has been crafted, but by showing readers the scaffolding that holds everything up, he invites us to figure out what holds our own realities straight.

Despite a widely held, and not entirely erroneous, view that the cultures of East and Southeast Asia commonly favour the mind over the body or, at least mental activity rather than physical endeavour, this collection of essays sheds light on the wide range of diverse ways in which sport and body cultures feature in that part of the world. Contributors to the collection work in many different countries but are united in their shared interest in increasing our understanding of the social role of sport and body cultures which is manifest in their work. The countries that are discussed are Indonesia, the People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and the former Netherlands New Guinea. Themes considered in these chapters are the implications of hosting sport events, the focus on sport and the body by a group of Buddhist monastics, belly dancing in the lives of women in Taiwan, the sociopolitical role of the scouting movement in a colonial setting, and issues relating to the functioning of sport clubs. The chapters were originally published in Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science.

A biography of Jesse "The Body" Ventura, the professional wrestler, turned Hollywood action hero, turned radio talk show host who recently became Governor of Minnesota.