How Sports Affects the Culture of Different Countries - Essay Example

Sport forms an extensive part of the culture of any country, and can be considered as the basis for social structures within society; which, in turn, is based on certain intrinsic values, needs, interests, and resources of the society. A study of the various countries and a look at their sports and culture will reveal how the different national cultures create and use sports for their purposes, thus lending it a different form that varies from culture to culture and country to country. This article will study the relationship that exists between sports and the national culture of a country, and how they affect each other.

  How sports affect the culture of different countries 1 Introduction “Discovery of sociology can change your life. It can help you to understand the social forces you confront, the forces that constrain and free you as you go about living your life. This understanding offers a liberating potential: To gain insight into how these social forces influence your life allows you to stand somewhere apart from at least some of them, and thereby exert more creative control over your life (Henslin, 1999, 1-2). 1.1 Background history Sociology entails studying the various social structures as seen in our society, formed by the web like intricate relationships that an individual develops with other members of that particular society, and the functioning social institutions.

In sociology, there are various ongoing series of social processes, which refer to the various interactive patterns that keep on recurring, during the transactions that take place between individuals and groups, at any given time. Within the context of social life and learning, the term culture may have multifarious implications. In 1952, Clyde Kluckhohn and Alfred Kroeber in their research papers anthologized 164 different definitions of the word "culture" (Kroeber, and Kluckhohn, 1952).   The term culture has three basic aspects.

First, culture may be viewed as an integration of various actions, knowledge, and beliefs, that are based on certain figurative thoughts and learning from different social experiences. Secondly, it may be about one’s taste in the line of humanities or ‘fine arts’; and thirdly it may also refer to a set of common goals, values, attributes, and practices that may distinguish a social group or an organization or an institution. Sports sociology, while trying to establish its connections with the various cultures worldwide, generally views the theme from a third perspective.

Sport sociology explores the standard deviations that are perceived within the culture of sports as seen within a society, which helps one to analyze and comprehend the integrated ‘greater values’ operating within that particular society. Thus, to understand the relationship that exists between sports and the various cultural norms observed worldwide, it is also necessary that we conduct a close study of the social framework of that country.