Abstract

FUENTES, Sebastián  and  GUINNESS, Daniel. The Nationalisms Associated with “Classy” Sports: Argentinian Rugby in the Professional/global Era. Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol. [online]. 2018, n.30, pp.85-105. ISSN 1900-5407.  https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda30.2018.05.

Men's rugby in Buenos Aires is going through a phase of professionalization and globalization which is blurring the long-standing link between that sport and the upper-middle and upper classes of the city. Based on two ethnographic studies of porteño (Buenos Aires) rugby players, this article analyses rugby as a space for the creation of “otherness” within the country as a whole, one which legitimizes Buenos Aires as the symbolic center of the nation to the detriment of its "interior". This phenomenon is reflected in the organization of the sport and the dispute between “amateurs” and “professionals”, which in turn, has a moral aspect insofar as both sides claim that they are the true representatives of the nation. An analysis of the careers of well-known former rugby players from Buenos Aires throws light on attempts to construct a nationalism "with class" in the context of the new globalization of sports which shape narratives about national identity and class.

Keywords : nation; nationalism; global; class; otherness; Buenos Aires.

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