The Olympics

The Olympics occur every four years, every time in a different city and in varying countries. Lately my friends and I have been watching or commentating on the Olympics regularly. We will even turn it on and mute it while we are doing homework. The Olympics draw in viewers of all ages, nationalities and genders. People will watch different countries compete in different sports for a few weeks. Viewers can chose the sport that they will watch, along with the country they would like to pull for. Many people see the Olympics as a way for countries to come together in a peaceful manner and bring people together, but what would Benedict and Malinowski think? I have seen many people adopt views on the Olympics that are similar to that of Benedict or to that of Malinowski.

Benedict’s main theory surrounds that of culture and personality; she believes that “cultures are personality writ large”. Benedict wanted to describe entire societies with the use of psychological attributes. Furthering her work she also completed many National Character studies. The National Character Studies were eventually ended because they led to the stereotyping of entire Nations. 

While watching the Olympics many people will comment, based on the sport, what country they will believe to win. Many people hold true the unfailing idea, that unless there is a fluke: The Canadians will take hockey and the Russians will take figure skating (I am not saying that is true, just examples I have heard).  When listening to this opinion I immediately though of Benedict. Benedict’s work focuses mainly on applying attributes and ideas to cultures as a whole, and by placing the assumption that certain countries will perform better than others in certain sports one can be applying an attribute to an entire population. Benedict’s National Character Studies are considering the salient characteristics of complex societies. When people assume that a certain country will dominate an area of sport, then they too are using a characteristic of the nation and placing it on all of their Olympic contenders. By using Benedict’s theory, knowingly or unknowingly, people are pigeon-holing Olympic athletes’ and Olympic countries into excelling at one specific sport. When the US lost the Snowboard half pipe competition, people were shocked, but they were even more shocked by the actual gold medalist being Swiss. So instead of placing a psychological attribute across an entire nation, they are placing a physical attribute across an entire nation.

Malinowski is a psychological functionalist. Malinowski suggested that individuals have physiological needs (reproduction, food, shelter) and that social institutions exist to meet these needs. There are also culturally derived needs. He believes that all institutions have function, and no institution would exist if it did not, in some way, meet the necessary needs of the people. Culture is used in order to help meet the needs of the individual by transforming them in to cultural needs.

Malinowski, hands down, would believe that the Olympics have a function as do all institutions. He would believe that the Olympics function to meet the basic needs of humans. The Olympics prepare the athletes for reproduction, growth, and bodily movement. The Olympics help to further each athlete in life, by giving them a higher chance of survival by meeting their basic needs. The Olympics also meet secondary cultural needs like prestige in honor within a society. Other viewers of the Olympics who take a view similar to Malinowski see that the Olympics aren’t simply about the competition between countries, but the furthering of individuals who compete in them. People who take a psychological functionalist view see the Olympics about the individual and individual success, and how that success not only provides for the basic needs of the athlete, but also the secondary cultural needs of furthering that person in society.