Every few weeks, I take a trip down to Clemson, SC to visit my girlfriend over the weekend. As you approach the campus you will find Clemson paw prints on the road, marking that you have entered Clemson territory and Clemson-clad automobiles speeding towards the campus with paw-print stickers and flags flapping from their windows. On days where there is a home game on a Saturday, you feel as if you are a part of some massive pilgrimage to a holy site. I think it's safe to say that football is a defining characteristic of Clemson, given how crazy and dedicated their fans can be.
Most football-crazy schools have traditions and rituals that are performed by the players. At Clemson, the players and staff make an extravagant entrance before the start of the game, which can be seen in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbvtdXHXaLU
You can see from this video of how much excitement is incited by this ritual. The stadium becomes this "ritualized space" for football, filled with orange-garbed fanatics, screaming "GO TIGERS!" Perhaps the most interesting part of the ritual, is that all the players touch the rock halfway down the hill onto the field. It's as if this rock has a power that can turn the tide in their favor before the start of the game. In this week's reading by David Chidester, players often perform ritual actions to control the 'unforseen' (747). This action, performed before the beginning of each home game, has an effect that strengthens the team and if performed correctly can give them the advantage even before the first snap. From an outside perspective, it seems like a silly superstition, however, to those fans and players, touching that rock is an integral part to the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmeLvrDRQ5c
That does indeed seem silly to an outsider, but so many things seem silly to outsiders. That's why religious studies can be so fun, as it struggles to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange. I would imagine that you, as an engineer, have little patience for anything that appears to be superstition. The players (some more than others, surely) see some efficacy in what they do, but you can look and know (?) that their actions have no effect whatsoever on the outcome of the game (although you might admit they achieve a psychological boost from it all). They tell themselves a particular story.
ReplyDeleteIt can be argued that science tells itself stories, too, and that they are no more valid than the stories told in religions or culture more broadly. How would you respond to that? Is "there is a force we call gravity that keeps up more or less stuck on earth" more valid than "touching this rock will positively affect the outcome of this game"? If so, why and how?
I love simple, straightforward questions.