Showing papers in "Canadian Journal of Sociology in 1985"

Honor, ritual and violence in ice hockey*

Abstract: This paper examines the symbolic or expressive dimension to illegal assaults among players in ice hockey. Based upon the author's qualitative field research in Toronto and Indianapolis, a distinction between legitimate and illegitimate violence is proposed to account for the fact that players distinguish the fist-fight in ice hockey from other violent acts. The fist-fight is formulated as a social ritual involving respect and honor among players to explain this fact, qualities which are absent in other types of assaults. Some of what has been labeled by previous researchers as hockey violence, it is suggested, should be viewed as an informal mode of social con- trol among players that has a moderating effect upon the commission of more serious assaults be- tween players. R6sum6. Cette 6tude cherche a d6montrer la valeur symbolique ou expressive des actes d'agression illegaux entre joueurs de hockey. La recherche qualitative de cet auteur, faite a Toronto et a Indianapolis, mene a l'ftablissement d'une distinction entre un acte de violence legitime et un acte de violence ill6gitime, ce qui justifierait la distinction que les joueurs eux-memes font entre les coups de poing lors d'un match de hockey et d'autres actes de violence. Selon ce chercheur, les coups de poing seraient un rite social comprenant le respect et l'honneur, qualit6s absentes dans d'autres actes d'agression. Ce que d'autres chercheurs ont appele auparavant la violence dans le hockey devrait etre considere, en grande partie, comme un genre non officiel de controle social qui sert a mod6rer la perpetration d'actes d'agression plus graves les joueurs.