Josh Reflexive post

        

        For a second I put myself in the shoes of the Kayapo children and try to imagine what it would be like to grow up in the jungle without social media and electronics that we have in our culture. I would get bored without all of the media I would need sports to help occupy my time and keep me out of trouble. But what if all the sports that I grew up playing didn’t even exist or were unknown to the people in my culture. I have been playing football since I was a young kid and i can’t imagine what I would be doing without it it’s the motivation that pushes me to succeed.

 Now the Kayapo have some sports in their culture. Soccer or Futbol is the most popular sport in their country and they have been exposed to the sport in my research I see many pictures of the kids playing soccer outside with a ball made of mud and sticks and a goal made out of tree branches with no net. I can’t relate to them playing soccer so that isn't reflexive of me but it is reflexive for their culture because it relates to the other people in the country.

    I can relate to these kids because sometimes sports might be all that they have or they might be trying to use the sport that they are good at to help them get a good education and follow their dreams just like I am by playing college football. Most of the families of these kids probably never went to college or got an education this might be there chance to turn that around.

       In conclusion the point I am trying to get across is that sports in any culture can help people


succeed, get education and stay healthy. Especially in the case of the Kayapo People Sports have


helped the culture prosper and stay alive.

Josh Ethnographic post

Josh Nelson

The culture my group chose to investigate and research is the Kayapo, the Kayapo is located alongside the Xingu river in the eastern part of the amazon rainforest in brazil. The term “Kayapo” means those who look like monkeys which comes from their rituals where the men dress up in regalia and wear monkey masks. the Kayapo is a dying culture the government put a dam along the Xingu river displacing 20,000 people from their homes.  Threats to the forest home of the Kayapo has been a  huge issue with the people beginning with mining and logging enterprises which threatened to destroy the rainforest, and thus the Kayapos' way of life.

Body paint exchanged for sports wear, bear feet instead of hi tech sports shoes. in the amazon they have not been exposed to many of the sports in brazil such as soccer and baseball. Instead the children create their own games. They play a sport called Xikunahity which is similar to football/soccer, but with players crawling on the ground, only permitted to use their heads to move the ball. some groups have created their own forms of fighting. the Kayapo have their own unique style of fighting which they teach their kids from a young age. they also consider hunting to be a sport and technique to help survive and prosper as a culture and create a source of food.

with the geographical location of the Kayapo soccer is a sport most of them have heard of or played. In my research I saw a picture of a young kid with a soccer ball made out of what looked like twigs and mud standing in front of a soccer net made out of sticks with no net. soccer seems to be a sport they play and enjoy as a pass time. although it is easy for these sports to be incorporated into the culture the Kayapo are extremely concerned with conserving their culture and their way of life.

Even though the Kayapo do not have many sports that have been incorporated into their culture it stills helps with the development of the kids and helps them to have a hobby and stay active.