Efraime Nhabanga

Bodies and Sorrows Efraime Nhabanga

The text uses the knowledge of anthropology, the idea that bodies are socially constructed, with references that are simultaneously natural and social, to analyze bodies and their experiences of pain, from the football context. In approaching the subject I defend the argument according to which, football players learn to deal with pain experiences. The analysis was made on the basis of theoretical and methodological assumptions of anthropology. The theoretical assumptions materialize in the use of phenomenology as a theory to analyze a set of pain experiences in soccer players. In turn, the methodological assumptions consisted in the use of ethnography as a method for the data collection process where observation techniques and informal conversations were applied. This methodological procedure made it possible to conclude that, when analysing the experiences of bodies in painful conditions, it is possible to understand forms of social construction of the bodies.