Mariann Vaczi's Books

Catalonia's Human Towers

Castells, Cultural Politics, and the Struggle toward the Heights

By: Mariann Vaczi

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Catalonia's Human Towers

Castells, Cultural Politics, and the Struggle toward the Heights

By: Mariann Vaczi

The building of human towers (castells) is a centuries-old traditional sport where hundreds of men, women, and children gather in Catalan squares to create breathtaking edifices through a feat of collective athleticism. The result is a great spectacle of effort and overcoming, tension and release. Catalonia's Human Towers is an ethnographic look at the thriving castells practice—a symbol of Catalan cultural heritage and identity amid debates around national autonomy and secession from Spain. While the main function of building castells is to grow community through a low-cost, intergenerational, and inclusive leisure activity, Mariann Vaczi reveals how this unique sport also provides a social base, image, and vocabulary for the independence movement. Highlighting the intersection of folklore, performance, and sport, Catalonia's Human Towers captures the subtle processes by which the body becomes politicized and ideology becomes embodied, with all the desires, risks and precarities of collective constructions.

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Page Count

299

Publisher

Indiana University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0253067189

ISBN 13

9780253067180

Soccer, Culture and Society in Spain

An Ethnography of Basque Fandom

By: Mariann Vaczi

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Soccer, Culture and Society in Spain

An Ethnography of Basque Fandom

By: Mariann Vaczi

Spanish soccer is on top of the world, at international and club level, with the best teams and a seemingly endless supply of exciting and stylish players. While the Spanish economy struggles, its soccer flourishes, deeply embedded throughout Spanish social and cultural life. But the relationship between soccer, culture and national identity in Spain is complex. This fascinating, in-depth study shines new light on Spanish soccer by examining the role this sport plays in Basque identity, consolidated in Athletic Club of Bilbao, the century-old soccer club located in the birthplace of Basque nationalism. Athletic Bilbao has a unique player recruitment policy, allowing only Basque-born players or those developed at the youth academies of Basque clubs to play for the team, a policy that rejects the internationalism of contemporary globalised soccer. Despite this, the club has never been relegated from the top division of Spanish football. A particularly tight bond exists between fans, their club and the players, with Athletic representing a beacon of Basque national identity. This book is an ethnography of a soccer culture where origins, nationalism, gender relations, power and passion, lifecycle events and death rituals gain new meanings as they become, below and beyond the playing field, a matter of creative contention and communal affirmation. Based on unique, in-depth ethnographic research, this book investigates how a soccer club and soccer fandom affect the life of a community, interweaving empirical research material with key contemporary themes in the social sciences, and placing the study in the wider context of Spanish political and sporting cultures. Filling a key gap in the literature on contemporary Spain, and on wider soccer cultures, this book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport, anthropology, sociology, political science, or cultural and gender studies.

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Page Count

245

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317677307

ISBN 13

9781317677307

Catalonia's Human Towers

Castells, Cultural Politics, and the Struggle Toward the Heights

By: Mariann Vaczi

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Catalonia's Human Towers

Castells, Cultural Politics, and the Struggle Toward the Heights

By: Mariann Vaczi

The building of human towers (castells) is a centuries-old traditional sport where hundreds of men, women, and children gather in Catalan squares to create breathtaking edifices through a feat of collective athleticism. The result is a great spectacle of effort and overcoming, tension and release. Catalonia's Human Towers is an ethnographic look at the thriving castells practice--a symbol of Catalan cultural heritage and identity amid debates around national autonomy and secession from Spain. While the main function of building castells is to grow community through a low-cost, intergenerational, and inclusive leisure activity, Mariann Vaczi reveals how this unique sport also provides a social base, image, and vocabulary for the independence movement. Highlighting the intersection of folklore, performance, and sport, Catalonia's Human Towers captures the subtle processes by which the body becomes politicized and ideology becomes embodied, with all the desires, risks and precarities of collective constructions.

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Age

Page Count

282

Publisher

Indiana University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0253067170

ISBN 13

9780253067173

Book's by Mariann Vaczi

Catalonia's Human Towers

Catalonia's Human Towers

Soccer, Culture and Society in Spain

Soccer, Culture and Society in Spain

Catalonia's Human Towers

Catalonia's Human Towers

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