Liminoid, Communitas and the Touches of the Absolute. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Ultraendurance Sports
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Date
2017
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Etnologický ústav AV ČR
Abstract
The paper presents the
interpretative phenomenological analysis
of the psychophysical experience of
ultraendurance athletes. It is based on
the ethnography of altered states of
consciousness, that can be reached by
the people participating in the longdistance trails. Extremely long-distance
trails are interpreted as liminoid timespaces, where Turnerian communitas is
formed on the base of the intersubjectively
shared experience of the otherness. The
paper uses the theoretical-methodological
framework of the phenomenological
anthropology, with the emphasis on the
Merleau-Ponty´s phenomenology of
perception and bodiliness. It concludes
that some of the states of consciousness
reached by the ultraendurance athletes
are close to a religious experience, and
that, ultraendurance sports can be
interpreted as re-liminalized time-spaces,
as a form of secular pilgrimage. In this
sense, ultraendurance sports exceed the
boundaries of how the sport is usually
anthropologically defined and interpreted.
The paper is the result of the fieldwork
among ultraendurance athletes.
Description
Subject(s)
ultraendurance sports, liminoid, communitas, altered states of consciousness, absolutely unitary being
Citation
ISSN
0009-0794