Christopher Gaffney’s book Temples of the Earthbound Gods offers us a rich geographical, culture, and ethnographic look at the way lives in Brazil and Argentina intersect with and our transformed by the space of stadia. What do you see as the most interesting contributions of this work? What kinds of theoretical approaches does he use in trying to understand what happens in and around the stadium? In what ways does his interpretive framework or insights help you understand experiences you have had in sports events?
As you grapple with these questions, feel free to read the comments made in 2013 by students in the Soccer Politics Class in response to a similar post.
In Temples of The Earthbound Gods, Christopher Gaffney fully analyzes the development of professional soccer teams in Brazil and Argentina alongside the countries’ urbanization. He uses stadiums in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires as a lens to examine soccer in the context of urban history, culture, and nationalism.
Using stadiums as a representation of the sport allows Gaffney to view soccer’s growth as a longer story of cultural development. In the chapters on Rio, Gaffney uses stadiums to discuss Brazil’s sense of nationalism and its relation to race and class. He highlights four stadiums. First, The Estadio das Laranjeiras represented privilege, while the Sao Cristovao Athletic Club and the Sao Januario for the Vasco de Gama Club attracted the working class. Interestingly, the working class stadiums were used by populist politicians as gathering places to promote their ideals. Finally, the Maracana stadium, built for the 1950 World Cup, signified Brazilian achievement and its achievement as a destination for the world to observe. These four stadiums illustrate the diversity of urban culture in Rio.
In the chapters on Buenos Aires, I enjoyed his analysis of soccer as a representation of masculinity. The sport began as an upper class, elite pastime, but then developed into a sport of the working masses. This change caused people to increasingly associate soccer with masculinity. He depicts young males posing and bursting with violent and homophobic slurs in order to illustrate the sexual implications of the sport. Meanwhile, he contrasts soccer with polo, which remained an elitist and boring sport of the higher classes.
Gaffney integrates the Brazilian and Argentine stories in a streamlined and readable manner. The book successfully makes interpretations of the cultural significance of a sport that dominates South America. His use of stadiums allows for an interesting take on that interpretation and allows him to make stronger connections to urban history and development. The framework also allows him to focus on different aspects of Rio and Buenos Aires, which makes perfect sense because the cities are so different.
Overall, I enjoyed this book thoroughly and learned a lot about sports as a reflection of the history and development of Latin America.
I had a great time reading Christopher Gaffney’s book Temples of the Earthbound Gods. Perhaps the most interesting sections of the book for me were chapters 4 and 5, which focused deeply on Buenos Aires, a city I knew very little about in regards to its soccer history. This is, in fact, very unfortunate, given that there are “sixty-four professional soccer stadiums in Greater Buenos Aires,” which is more “than any city in the world” (145-146).
Chapter 4 addresses the relationship of the urban space of stadiums within the city of Buenos Aires. Given that “between 1870 and 1930 the population of Buenos Aires exploded from 180,000 to 2,250,000, primarily as a result of European immigration,” there were many different soccer clubs and social clubs that wanted space to play soccer. As a result, many local rivalries were started over who could control the field, or cancha, in which each team played, as there was limited space in the city. This is very interesting since oftentimes rivalries have other historical reasons behind them. For example, Real Madrid vs Barcelona is one with political ties regarding independence and nationalism. Yet, the biggest rivalries in Argentina are within Buenos Aires, as clubs had to fight off each other to keep the field they owned, among other reasons. “The ability to claim space and create and maintain a stadium was a principal criterion for the permanence of sporting clubs” (134). In other words, a very Darwinian approach of “survival of the fittest” happened in early 20th century Buenos Aires, where only the best teams who won constantly would be able to keep their stadiums, and thus keep existing.
However, the most mind-boggling theory that Gaffney presented was when he talked about urban space and sexuality. Gaffney explains that women had “limited public roles” (135) as they weren’t really allowed to leave the household. Therefore, there was a lot of sexual tension between men who spent most of their time in public together (such as in cafés) to prove their masculinity. Since there were few women in the streets, the men who were considered “weak” and did not have wives were encouraged to “visit a bordello than have sexual relations with other men” (136). As a result, prostitution became legal. Yet, despite this new policy, there was still an imbalance between men and women in society, and so tango was created where men would fight off each other in order to attract a woman, therefore proving their masculinity. Given this context, one can understand why fans chant sexual things to other fans regarding female genitalia, as if to prove that they are manlier. Gaffney goes into this concept in much greater detail in this chapter, which is definitely worth the read.
Finally, in Chapter 5, I learned about the different landscapes of stadiums in Buenos Aires, and how they greatly contrast each other. Gaffney makes this very clear when he states, “the relatively privileged social positions of rugby and polo tend to reify existing socioeconomic and political structures, whereas soccer tends towards a populist violence against the state that is unevenly managed by the governing classes” (149). Thus, the crowds attending polo and rugby matches are very different than those attending soccer matches, with “large purses, jewelry and expensive sunglasses” (156) being common items among spectators, as well as little police in the stadium. During soccer matches, however, the number of police is greatly increased, fans are often standing the whole match, and it is advised not to take any valuable items. This is something I’ve always felt to be true when I went to soccer matches in Brazil. Although I often took my phone to have a form of communication (and a camera), I left everything else at home, taking only the necessary amount of money, ID and the ticket for the game.
Gaffney also mentions the barrabravas and the amount of influence they can have on a team. A radical example is when “In November 2006 the barrabrava of Gimnasia de La Plata threatened to shoot their players in the legs if they did not lose a game against Boca Juniors so that their city rivals Estudiantes de la Plata would not claim first place in the national league” (168). In Brazil there are many groups similar to the barrabravas of Argentina, such as the Gaviões da Fiel for Corinthians F.C., but I had no idea the extent to which groups such as these had the ability to influence the outcome of a match in Argentina. I’m sure it also happens to a similar extent in Brazil, but if I had to guess, I’d say that it would happen on smaller, lower-division teams where the fans can have a greater impact on the team’s performance.
(For those interested in seeing a picture of the Gaviões, here is a link: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uA8D6Bgx8Xo/T5JO77aNy5I/AAAAAAAAAUg/_Y_80V62xzM/s500/95111.j.jpg )
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En discutant ce livre dans la section française, nous étions fascinés par le développement de l’argument que Christopher Gaffney a présenté. Il parle du symbolisme des stades en analysant quatre stades au Brésil et les stades en générale aux Buenos Aires. Il utilise cette méthode pour souligner comment les stades représentent les classes sociales et hiérarchiques dans la société au Brésil tandis que les stades en Argentine créer une atmosphère qui est provoquant et encourage l’hégémonie masculine (143). C’est intéressant parce que je n’ai jamais réfléchi aux stades comme des endroits qui unifient les différentes classes sociales ou qui peuvent encourager des actions chauvinistes. Mais, le plus que je réfléchi, le plus je me rend compte que cette culture existe et est très présent pas juste en Brésil et Argentine, mais partout le monde.
Par exemple, quand j’étais à Paris, je voulais vraiment aller voir un match de PSG. Alors, j’ai acheté le billet le moins cher pour aller regarder l’équipe la plus fameuse de la France. Quand je suis arrivé au match, j’étais en train de chercher pour mon siège. À mon surpris, il avait quelqu’un déjà debout au dessus de mon siège. L’homme m’a dit « ici, tu es avec les vrais fans, les mauviettes riches sont assis sur les côtés du stade. » Je n’étais pas prêt d’être au debout pour 90 minutes—mais je n’avais pas un choix.
Quand même, je me suis amusé très bien !
Mais, comme l’auteur discute, cette hiérarchie entre les spectateurs n’est pas étonnante. En Argentine, cette hiérarchie existe dans les stades de foot, mais aussi de polo et de rugby (168). Les stades en Argentine, comme mon expérience en France m’enseigné, sont organisé avec la considération des interactions des classes sociales et où les gens vont s’asseoir. Toutes cette considérations déterminent l’atmosphère pendant les matchs et encouragent les tensions entre les spectateurs après les matchs. L’auteur mentionne que cette hiérarchie est tellement présente dehors des stades aussi—dans les cartiers, les murs, et des magasins (172-173).
Evidemment, la culture de foot n’est que les couleurs des maillots où les succès d’une équipe, c’est beaucoup plus. Les stades sont des endroits où milliers personnes se sont rassembles avec des cultures, sexes, parties politiques, et class sociales différentes. Par conséquent, comme Christopher Gaffney raconte, ces stades provoquent des tensions sexuelles et distance hiérarchique qui sont présente partout la culture du foot—comme dans les hymnes et chansons des équipes. Je n’ai jamais pensé qu’un stade à Rio peuvent devenir un symbole d’interaction des classes sociales ou un stade à Buenos Aires repesent les tendances sexuels dans la société. Cela est la raison pour laquelle j’ai bien aimé ce livre car l’auteur m’a montré qu’un stade n’est qu’un lieu pour regarder un match, mais c’est une partie du foot qui est plus représentatif de la culture et comportements de la société.