Abstract

CASTRO LOZANO, John Alexander. The combat between supporters in Bogotá: sociology of football violence. Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2022, vol.45, n.2, pp.117-139.  Epub Jan 12, 2024. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v45n2/95844.

Starting in the 1990s in Colombia, the supporters (to face their rivals) normalized the use of fists, kicks, and headbutts; later, they switched to the use of glass bottles, wooden sticks, and stones, and in the present, they handle knives and firearms. This type of demonstrations showed the formation of the "barras bravas", an organized group of supporters who exhibited a diversity of behaviors before, during, and after the matches; for example, related to violence. Among the supporters who form in the "barras bravas", confrontations or fights are called combat. Thus, combat refers to clashes between supporters, that is, fights between rival supporters. Combat is the manifestation of a form of masculinity that, makes manhood visible, bodily skills for confrontation, and skills in handling glass bottles, wooden sticks, stones, and even knives. In addition, it serves to ratify the group identity as it allows us to verify who remains in the fight against rivals.

The consequences of participation in combat are injuries, fractures, and multiple wounds, traces on the body that will be exhibited through scars; generating an influence and an authority among the supporters, who are part of the "barra brava", that orders their hierarchy. However, those who are not part of this social group understand this type of meanings and behaviors as aggressive and conflictive since they exert violence against each other, resorting to the use of multiple weapons to injure, and even eliminate the other. For this reason, the objective of the article is to understand and explain the combat or violence between the supporters, who form a "barra brava" in Bogotá. In this sense, this research work was developed from the frequent presence in different activities of the social group ("barra brava") and in conversations with the subjects (supporters), that is, the research has been developed from ethnographic fieldwork.

Keywords : "barras bravas"; combat; "emic"; "etic"; football; violence.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )