Sociocultural substantiation of running in the traditional games and ethnosport

Abstract

The subject of this research is the determination of sociocultural specificity of running practices within the framework of traditional games and ethnosport. Despite considerable amount of works dedicated to the traditional games and ethnosport, scholars’ attention has not been previously drawn to sociocultural peculiarities of running as the most universal form of physical activity of the amateur participant or a professional athlete, which substantiates the relevance of the selected topic. Traditional games and ethnosport perform an important mission in modern world – they impart sports and competitive activity with humanism, instilling the elements of folk culture. Running, as a universal component of sports, becomes one of the means of consolidation, demonstration, and translation of ethnic values within the framework of traditional games. The author reveals the following peculiarities of running in the sociocultural situation of traditional games and ethnosport: running as an element of military games and traditional non-militarized team games; running as an element of mating ritual; running as am entertainment; utilitarian oriented running; substitute running. The ideological foundation of running in the context of traditional games and ethnosport is a myth; the considered form of running is humanistically oriented, as it does not suggest over limit body burden and full subordination of a person to sport; running is a method of psycho-emotional relief and helps to achieve harmony with the nature; it is gender-specific and often specialized running; it ensures solidarity of a social group; a form of expressing patriotism; an important element of event tourism; a substantial component of ethnopedagogy; an element of ethnic dance; an element of children's game’ a type of economic activity inherent to a particular nation.