| （Departmen of Physical Education，Xiamen University，Xiamen 361005，China） Abstract: By means of the “rites of passage” theory, the author analyzed the relations between rite and sport, and put forward the following opinions: the whole process of sports competitions can be deemed as a typical rite of pas-sage, and its “training-competition-retraining” structure corresponds with such a 3-stage structure of rites as “sepa-ration (pre-limen)-transition (limen)-integration (post-limen)”; in these 3 stages, sport also presents different social and cultural functions: in the pre-limen period, extraordinarily hard training is endowed with a certain sort of holi-ness, which promotes the transformation of athletes from “human” to “god”, being a necessary condition for making successful athletes; in the limen period, competitions create a “holy world” different from the earthly world, in which athletes realize their egos in this ideal world of “fairness, justness and openness”, while the audience experi-ence collective sprees; in the post-limen period, competitions turn out their winners and losers, and athletes change their social roles, then start retrospecting and surpassing; it is in the rite like recycling of “training - competition - retraining” that athletes are forged and become mature.
Key words: sports anthropology；sports competition；rite；limen |
