Author: Joseph S. Alter
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520912175
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
The Wrestler's Body tells the story of a way of life organized in terms of physical self-development. While Indian wrestlers are competitive athletes, they are also moral reformers whose conception of self and society is fundamentally somatic. Using the insights of anthropology, Joseph Alter writes an ethnography of the wrestler's physique that elucidates the somatic structure of the wrestler's identity and ideology. Young men in North India may choose to join an akhara, or gymnasium, where they subject themselves to a complex program of physical and moral fitness. Alter's first-hand description of each detail of the wrestler's regimen offers a unique perspective on South Asian culture and society. Wrestlers feel that moral reform of Indian national character is essential and advocate their way of life as an ideology of national health. Everyone is called on to become a wrestler and build collective strength through self-discipline.
The Wrestler's Body
Author: Joseph S. Alter
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520912175
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
The Wrestler's Body tells the story of a way of life organized in terms of physical self-development. While Indian wrestlers are competitive athletes, they are also moral reformers whose conception of self and society is fundamentally somatic. Using the insights of anthropology, Joseph Alter writes an ethnography of the wrestler's physique that elucidates the somatic structure of the wrestler's identity and ideology. Young men in North India may choose to join an akhara, or gymnasium, where they subject themselves to a complex program of physical and moral fitness. Alter's first-hand description of each detail of the wrestler's regimen offers a unique perspective on South Asian culture and society. Wrestlers feel that moral reform of Indian national character is essential and advocate their way of life as an ideology of national health. Everyone is called on to become a wrestler and build collective strength through self-discipline.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520912175
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
The Wrestler's Body tells the story of a way of life organized in terms of physical self-development. While Indian wrestlers are competitive athletes, they are also moral reformers whose conception of self and society is fundamentally somatic. Using the insights of anthropology, Joseph Alter writes an ethnography of the wrestler's physique that elucidates the somatic structure of the wrestler's identity and ideology. Young men in North India may choose to join an akhara, or gymnasium, where they subject themselves to a complex program of physical and moral fitness. Alter's first-hand description of each detail of the wrestler's regimen offers a unique perspective on South Asian culture and society. Wrestlers feel that moral reform of Indian national character is essential and advocate their way of life as an ideology of national health. Everyone is called on to become a wrestler and build collective strength through self-discipline.
Legends of Pro Wrestling
Author: Tim Hornbaker
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 1613210752
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 569
Book Description
Details the lives and careers of the best professional wrestling figures of the last one hundred fifty years, including Bruno Sammartino, The Undertaker, and John Cena.
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 1613210752
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 569
Book Description
Details the lives and careers of the best professional wrestling figures of the last one hundred fifty years, including Bruno Sammartino, The Undertaker, and John Cena.
Body Drop
Author: Brian Oliu
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781469663418
Category : Wrestlers
Languages : en
Pages : 208
Book Description
Professional wrestling is a strange beast full of contradictions--part live soap opera, part hypermasculine violent spectacle. It is an indelibly American pastime enjoyed by millions and leads a select group of wrestlers to international fame. It's also a sport that leaves many of its athletes broken and battered, at serious risk of addiction, poverty, and early death. Body Drop looks deeply at the nuances of professional wrestling and its strange place within American culture. Brian Oliu offers deeply personal meditations on such topics as disability, chronic pain, body image, masculinity, class, and more, all through the lens of American professional wrestling. Wrestling is a sport that is gleefully fake, but the people who love it are very real. In holding up this particular part of American culture to scrutiny, Oliu acknowledges that the wrestling world, like our own, is one that has been crafted, but by showing readers the scaffolding that holds everything up, he invites us to figure out what holds our own realities straight.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781469663418
Category : Wrestlers
Languages : en
Pages : 208
Book Description
Professional wrestling is a strange beast full of contradictions--part live soap opera, part hypermasculine violent spectacle. It is an indelibly American pastime enjoyed by millions and leads a select group of wrestlers to international fame. It's also a sport that leaves many of its athletes broken and battered, at serious risk of addiction, poverty, and early death. Body Drop looks deeply at the nuances of professional wrestling and its strange place within American culture. Brian Oliu offers deeply personal meditations on such topics as disability, chronic pain, body image, masculinity, class, and more, all through the lens of American professional wrestling. Wrestling is a sport that is gleefully fake, but the people who love it are very real. In holding up this particular part of American culture to scrutiny, Oliu acknowledges that the wrestling world, like our own, is one that has been crafted, but by showing readers the scaffolding that holds everything up, he invites us to figure out what holds our own realities straight.
Bodyslams!
Author: Gary Michael Cappetta
Publisher: ECW Press
ISBN: 1550227092
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 334
Book Description
Popular wrestling compere Gary Cappetta weaves commentary on the business and its protagonists with tales of the road and personal insight, shedding light in the process on the dangerous games pro wrestlers and their corporate employers play in order to acquire fame, power and wealth. During the three decades he spent as ring announcer for America's two dominant wrestling promoters, Cappetta occupied the same locker rooms, hotels and vehicles as the athletes he was employed to introduce.
Publisher: ECW Press
ISBN: 1550227092
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 334
Book Description
Popular wrestling compere Gary Cappetta weaves commentary on the business and its protagonists with tales of the road and personal insight, shedding light in the process on the dangerous games pro wrestlers and their corporate employers play in order to acquire fame, power and wealth. During the three decades he spent as ring announcer for America's two dominant wrestling promoters, Cappetta occupied the same locker rooms, hotels and vehicles as the athletes he was employed to introduce.
The Professional Wrestlers' Workout & Instructional Guide
Author: Harley Race
Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC
ISBN: 9781582619477
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 152
Book Description
Many dream of headlining Wrestlemania, but few understand the hard work and dedication needed to become a professional wrestler. Almost all top stars have trained in schools and camps with legendary wrestlers in order to learn the execution of key moves, how to put together a match, sell yourself and your opponent to the crowd, and keep fit through physical training and healthy diet. The Professional Wrestler's Instructional and Workout Guide brings readers more than 100 years of collective knowledge and experience from three elite names in the professional wrestling industry, including two former NWA World Heavyweight Champions. Harley Race, Ricky Steamboat, and Les Thatcher share their wealth of knowledge and experience as they help the novice wrestler prepare for the long journey into pro wrestling. After reading this book, the aspiring wrestler should have the knowledge of how maneuvers are executed effectively and safely, the physical conditioning needed to perform them, and the thought process involved in piecing together an actual match. The novice should learn the psychology of pro wrestling both in and out of the ring as well as how to find employment on the independent circuit.
Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC
ISBN: 9781582619477
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 152
Book Description
Many dream of headlining Wrestlemania, but few understand the hard work and dedication needed to become a professional wrestler. Almost all top stars have trained in schools and camps with legendary wrestlers in order to learn the execution of key moves, how to put together a match, sell yourself and your opponent to the crowd, and keep fit through physical training and healthy diet. The Professional Wrestler's Instructional and Workout Guide brings readers more than 100 years of collective knowledge and experience from three elite names in the professional wrestling industry, including two former NWA World Heavyweight Champions. Harley Race, Ricky Steamboat, and Les Thatcher share their wealth of knowledge and experience as they help the novice wrestler prepare for the long journey into pro wrestling. After reading this book, the aspiring wrestler should have the knowledge of how maneuvers are executed effectively and safely, the physical conditioning needed to perform them, and the thought process involved in piecing together an actual match. The novice should learn the psychology of pro wrestling both in and out of the ring as well as how to find employment on the independent circuit.
Professional Wrestling
Author: Sharon Mazer
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496826604
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 199
Book Description
Professional wrestling is one of the most popular performance practices in the United States and around the world, drawing millions of spectators to live events and televised broadcasts. The displays of violence, simulated and actual, may be the obvious appeal, but that is just the beginning. Fans debate performance choices with as much energy as they argue about their favorite wrestlers. The ongoing scenarios and presentations of manly and not-so-manly characters—from the flamboyantly feminine to the hypermasculine—simultaneously celebrate and critique, parody and affirm the American dream and the masculine ideal. Sharon Mazer looks at the world of professional wrestling from a fan’s-eye-view high in the stands and from ringside in the wrestlers’ gym. She investigates how performances are constructed and sold to spectators, both on a local level and in the “big leagues” of the WWF/E. She shares a close-up view of a group of wrestlers as they work out, get their faces pushed to the mat as part of their initiation into the fraternity of the ring, and dream of stardom. In later chapters, Mazer explores professional wrestling’s carnivalesque presentation of masculinities ranging from the cute to the brute, as well as the way in which the performances of women wrestlers often enter into the realm of pornographic. Finally, she explores the question of the “real” and the “fake” as the fans themselves confront it. First published in 1998, this new edition of Professional Wrestling: Sport and Spectacle both preserves the original’s snapshot of the wrestling scene of the 1980s and 1990s and features an up-to-date perspective on the current state of play.
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496826604
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 199
Book Description
Professional wrestling is one of the most popular performance practices in the United States and around the world, drawing millions of spectators to live events and televised broadcasts. The displays of violence, simulated and actual, may be the obvious appeal, but that is just the beginning. Fans debate performance choices with as much energy as they argue about their favorite wrestlers. The ongoing scenarios and presentations of manly and not-so-manly characters—from the flamboyantly feminine to the hypermasculine—simultaneously celebrate and critique, parody and affirm the American dream and the masculine ideal. Sharon Mazer looks at the world of professional wrestling from a fan’s-eye-view high in the stands and from ringside in the wrestlers’ gym. She investigates how performances are constructed and sold to spectators, both on a local level and in the “big leagues” of the WWF/E. She shares a close-up view of a group of wrestlers as they work out, get their faces pushed to the mat as part of their initiation into the fraternity of the ring, and dream of stardom. In later chapters, Mazer explores professional wrestling’s carnivalesque presentation of masculinities ranging from the cute to the brute, as well as the way in which the performances of women wrestlers often enter into the realm of pornographic. Finally, she explores the question of the “real” and the “fake” as the fans themselves confront it. First published in 1998, this new edition of Professional Wrestling: Sport and Spectacle both preserves the original’s snapshot of the wrestling scene of the 1980s and 1990s and features an up-to-date perspective on the current state of play.
Help! I'm Trapped in a Professional Wrestler's Body
Author: Todd Strasser
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780439147736
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 124
Book Description
Realizing that his friend Andy is trapped in the body of wrestler Bruce "Brianiac" Bloom, Jake switches bodies with Nick "No Nerve" Nelson in order to help his friend face Neutron Newman, the Human Bomb.
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780439147736
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 124
Book Description
Realizing that his friend Andy is trapped in the body of wrestler Bruce "Brianiac" Bloom, Jake switches bodies with Nick "No Nerve" Nelson in order to help his friend face Neutron Newman, the Human Bomb.
Enter the Dangal
Author: Rudraneil Sengupta
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9350297701
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 261
Book Description
'When I'm on the mat, I am so filled with this awareness that the slightest touch feels like electricity to my body, and my body reacts to that the same way it would have reacted if I touched a livewire.' Wrestling, kushti, rules the farmlands, as it has for centuries. It had pride of place in the courts of Chalukya kings and Mughal emperors. It was embraced by Hinduism and its epics, and has led its own untroubled revolution against the caste system. The British loved it when they first came to India, then rejected it during the freedom struggle. No, wrestling has never been marginal -- even if it is largely ignored in modern-day narratives of sport and culture. From the Great Gama to Sushil Kumar -- whose two Olympic medals yanked the kushti out of rural obscurity and on to TV screens -- and the many, many pehalwans in between, Enter the Dangal goes behind the scenes to the akharas that quietly defy urbanization. It travels to villages and small towns to meet the intrepid women who fight their way into this 'manly' sport. Beyond the indifferent wrestling associations and an impervious media is an old, old sport.Enter the dangal, and you may never leave.
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9350297701
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 261
Book Description
'When I'm on the mat, I am so filled with this awareness that the slightest touch feels like electricity to my body, and my body reacts to that the same way it would have reacted if I touched a livewire.' Wrestling, kushti, rules the farmlands, as it has for centuries. It had pride of place in the courts of Chalukya kings and Mughal emperors. It was embraced by Hinduism and its epics, and has led its own untroubled revolution against the caste system. The British loved it when they first came to India, then rejected it during the freedom struggle. No, wrestling has never been marginal -- even if it is largely ignored in modern-day narratives of sport and culture. From the Great Gama to Sushil Kumar -- whose two Olympic medals yanked the kushti out of rural obscurity and on to TV screens -- and the many, many pehalwans in between, Enter the Dangal goes behind the scenes to the akharas that quietly defy urbanization. It travels to villages and small towns to meet the intrepid women who fight their way into this 'manly' sport. Beyond the indifferent wrestling associations and an impervious media is an old, old sport.Enter the dangal, and you may never leave.
The wrestler's body [text and electronic resource]
Author: Joseph S. Alter
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788121507998
Category : India
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
Illustrations: 15 B/W Illustrations Description: The Wrestler's Body tells us the story of a way of life organized in terms of physical self-development. While Indian wrestlers are competitive athletes, they are also moral reformers whose conception of self and society is fundamentally somatic. In order to elucidate the somatic structure of the wrestler's identity and ideology, Joseph Alter uses the insights of anthropology to write an ethnography of the wrestler's physique. Young men in North India may choose to join an akhara, or gymnasium, where they subject themselves to a complex program of physical fitness. Under the supervision of a guru they become wrestlers by learning how and what to eat, how, when and where to sleep, bathe, defecate, exercise, brush their teeth, and rest, what to wear, and generally how to comport themselves. By these means they not only become competent athletes, they come to develop a moral physique and to embody an ideology of public health. Alter's first-hand description of each detail of the wrestler's regimen is set within the geomoral context of the gymnasium and is framed by a series of interpretations: the place of the body in the relationship between a guru and his disciple; the meaning of patronage as a system of control and support; the embodiment of symbolic structures in the ritual of Nagapanchami; a deconstruction of the embodied self through the drama of tournament competition; and the development of a moral physique modeled on the ironic form and divine structure of Lord Hanuman's body. Wrestling provides a unique perspective on South Asian culture and society. Self-consciously outside the cultural mainstream, it cuts against the weave of the larger cultural fabric. By bringing members of high and low castes into close physical contact, wrestling challenges the principles of purity and pollution. Concepts of general health and fitness are redefined in exaggerated terms. Using the model of sannyasa, or Hindu world renunciation, wrestlers transform the disciplinary mechanisms of asceticism into the terms of somatic nationalism and utopian reform. The body of the wrestler is a focal symbol in the rubric of ethical nationalism. Wrestlers feel that a reform of Indian national character is imperative and that moral reform on this scale can only be achieved through a discipline of the individual body. As such, wrestlers advocate their way of life as an ideology of national health. Everyone is called on to become a wrestler and build collective strength through self-discipline.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788121507998
Category : India
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
Illustrations: 15 B/W Illustrations Description: The Wrestler's Body tells us the story of a way of life organized in terms of physical self-development. While Indian wrestlers are competitive athletes, they are also moral reformers whose conception of self and society is fundamentally somatic. In order to elucidate the somatic structure of the wrestler's identity and ideology, Joseph Alter uses the insights of anthropology to write an ethnography of the wrestler's physique. Young men in North India may choose to join an akhara, or gymnasium, where they subject themselves to a complex program of physical fitness. Under the supervision of a guru they become wrestlers by learning how and what to eat, how, when and where to sleep, bathe, defecate, exercise, brush their teeth, and rest, what to wear, and generally how to comport themselves. By these means they not only become competent athletes, they come to develop a moral physique and to embody an ideology of public health. Alter's first-hand description of each detail of the wrestler's regimen is set within the geomoral context of the gymnasium and is framed by a series of interpretations: the place of the body in the relationship between a guru and his disciple; the meaning of patronage as a system of control and support; the embodiment of symbolic structures in the ritual of Nagapanchami; a deconstruction of the embodied self through the drama of tournament competition; and the development of a moral physique modeled on the ironic form and divine structure of Lord Hanuman's body. Wrestling provides a unique perspective on South Asian culture and society. Self-consciously outside the cultural mainstream, it cuts against the weave of the larger cultural fabric. By bringing members of high and low castes into close physical contact, wrestling challenges the principles of purity and pollution. Concepts of general health and fitness are redefined in exaggerated terms. Using the model of sannyasa, or Hindu world renunciation, wrestlers transform the disciplinary mechanisms of asceticism into the terms of somatic nationalism and utopian reform. The body of the wrestler is a focal symbol in the rubric of ethical nationalism. Wrestlers feel that a reform of Indian national character is imperative and that moral reform on this scale can only be achieved through a discipline of the individual body. As such, wrestlers advocate their way of life as an ideology of national health. Everyone is called on to become a wrestler and build collective strength through self-discipline.
Bump
Author: Matt Wallace
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0063008009
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Book Description
A moving and triumphant middle grade contemporary debut from award-winning author Matt Wallace about a heroic young girl—who dreams of becoming a pro wrestler—learning to find courage and fight for what she loves. Perfect for fans of Kelly Yang, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds' Track series! MJ knows what it means to hurt. Bruises from gymnastics heal, but big hurts—like her dad not being around anymore—don’t go away. Now her mom needs to work two jobs, and MJ doesn’t have friends at school to lean on. There is only one thing MJ loves: the world of professional wrestling. She especially idolizes the luchadores and the stories they tell in the ring. When MJ learns that her neighbor, Mr. Arellano, runs a wrestling school, she has a new mission in life: join the school, train hard, and become a wrestler. But trouble lies ahead. After wrestling in a showcase event, MJ attracts the attention of Mr. Arellano’s enemy at the State Athletic Commission. There are threats to shut the school down, putting MJ’s new home—and the community that welcomed her—at risk. What can MJ do to save her new family? * A Junior Library Guild Selection * Banks Street Best Children's Books of the Year *
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0063008009
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Book Description
A moving and triumphant middle grade contemporary debut from award-winning author Matt Wallace about a heroic young girl—who dreams of becoming a pro wrestler—learning to find courage and fight for what she loves. Perfect for fans of Kelly Yang, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds' Track series! MJ knows what it means to hurt. Bruises from gymnastics heal, but big hurts—like her dad not being around anymore—don’t go away. Now her mom needs to work two jobs, and MJ doesn’t have friends at school to lean on. There is only one thing MJ loves: the world of professional wrestling. She especially idolizes the luchadores and the stories they tell in the ring. When MJ learns that her neighbor, Mr. Arellano, runs a wrestling school, she has a new mission in life: join the school, train hard, and become a wrestler. But trouble lies ahead. After wrestling in a showcase event, MJ attracts the attention of Mr. Arellano’s enemy at the State Athletic Commission. There are threats to shut the school down, putting MJ’s new home—and the community that welcomed her—at risk. What can MJ do to save her new family? * A Junior Library Guild Selection * Banks Street Best Children's Books of the Year *