Adalékok a modern férfiasság kialakulásának vizsgálatához

Absztrakt

Miklós Hadas’ text is an excerpt from a book he is currently working on entitled Sports and Masculinity. His starting question is this: What explains that until the fall of communism Hungary was among the three most successful nations, proportionate to population, in the history of modern sports movements? He attempts an answer through the study of social dispositions, i.e. long-term behavioural patterns of different social groups. Hadas follows three main paradigms: one is Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology, whose theory of habitus has exerted a decisive influence upon his views. Nonetheless, contrary to Bourdieu who states that male domination is a universal structural element of all societies, Hadas – in accord with the mainstream canon of contemporary men’s studies – conceives of hegemonic masculinity as a historically changing phenomenon. The third tradition guiding his work is the theory of civilisation of Norbert Elias. A main thesis of Hadas’ book is that in the early 19th century masculine passions are channelled into new directions: fight aiming at killing the enemy is gradually replaced by more or less civilised competition. The chapter published here pictures gymnastics as part of this long-term social process. Its organised rational practice, argues the author, serves the social ascension of the emerging Hungarian bourgeoisie. Furthermore, by contributing to incorporate self-control, discipline and obedience, this pre-sport also generates revolutionary changes in the everyday life. Gymnastics, therefore, might be concidered as an important element of modernity’s corporeal basis.