In the United States, regardless of the type of sport being played many people often enjoy watching and cheering for their favorite sports teams. People that share an affiliation and passion for a certain team come together to watch their teams perform either in person or on the television. And forming a bond with a specific sports team can also become a way for people to identify with places they live or have lived at one point in their life. Even in cases where there exist bitter rivalries among teams and fans across the country such as in the case of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, sports serve as a way to actually bring people together to watch their respective teams compete against one another.
Furthermore, professional sports …show more content…
Thus, it appears that professional sports organizations can be regarded as being an integral cog within the overall functioning society of the United States, and therefore, professional sports could be understood through the theory of structural functionalism put forth by A.R. Radcliffe-Brown. I will elucidate the specific functions that professional sports provide for society as a whole through the lens of anthropologists such as A.R. Radcliffe-Brown. Additionally, I will analyze the role of professional sports using the theory of functionalism by Bronislaw Malinowski. Lastly, I will provide additional insight from two professors Eldon Synder and Elmer Spreitzer both from Bowling Green …show more content…
That mode is derived from another 20th century anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski who put forth his own theory of functionalism, however, his theory was built on what was known as a theory of needs and was grounded in the idea that "culture exists to meet the basic biological, psychological, and social needs of the individual" (Moore, p. 127). And while he believed much like Radcliffe-Brown that there did exist certain generalizations across societies that could be used for comparison. He instead, argued that collectively people had certain needs that ultimately produced certain cultural responses. For example, as explained by Moore the biological need for people to consume food produced "[t]he cultural response dubbed commissariat" which was the complete process of the military supplying food for the army (Moore, p.
Furthermore, professional sports …show more content…
Thus, it appears that professional sports organizations can be regarded as being an integral cog within the overall functioning society of the United States, and therefore, professional sports could be understood through the theory of structural functionalism put forth by A.R. Radcliffe-Brown. I will elucidate the specific functions that professional sports provide for society as a whole through the lens of anthropologists such as A.R. Radcliffe-Brown. Additionally, I will analyze the role of professional sports using the theory of functionalism by Bronislaw Malinowski. Lastly, I will provide additional insight from two professors Eldon Synder and Elmer Spreitzer both from Bowling Green …show more content…
That mode is derived from another 20th century anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski who put forth his own theory of functionalism, however, his theory was built on what was known as a theory of needs and was grounded in the idea that "culture exists to meet the basic biological, psychological, and social needs of the individual" (Moore, p. 127). And while he believed much like Radcliffe-Brown that there did exist certain generalizations across societies that could be used for comparison. He instead, argued that collectively people had certain needs that ultimately produced certain cultural responses. For example, as explained by Moore the biological need for people to consume food produced "[t]he cultural response dubbed commissariat" which was the complete process of the military supplying food for the army (Moore, p.