Sportization of Iranian Traditional, Indigenous, and Local Sports and Games: Pros and Cons

Indigenous and local sports and games are activities that have been created under different and diverse needs and the climatic and cultural conditions of the communities. These activities are human beings intangible cultural and spiritual heritage that must be protected and promoted. During a qualitative study and interviews with ۴۷ experts, Sportization was identified as one of the strategies to preserve and develop indigenous and local sports and games. The data obtained from the interviews were analyzed using the thematic analysis method. The quality of the findings were confirmed by recoding part of the data and the confirmation of the participants. Norbert Elias has used the term Sportization before to describe how folk games evolved into modern sports forms like football. Herein, Sportization means that indigenous and local games in different parts of the country become legal sports with the same structure to be trained and competed like other classic sports. Sportization includes policies of standardization, becoming competitive, commercialization, and internationalization. Standardization turns indigenous and local sports and games into a standard form. Becoming competitive refers to planning for competitive matches in standardized sports and games. The policy of commercializing attracts sponsors and turns standardized sports competitions into profitable activities. Finally, the standardized local indigenous sports games can be introduced as an official sport and seek to be registered and recognized by international sporting bodies. Sportization strategy can preserve the life of indigenous and local sports and games and provide context for their development in a standard form, which is a great advantage. However, unfortunately, the local details and subtleties of the games will be lost, which is a great danger. Therefore, it is necessary to pursue the strategy of Sportization only at national and international levels and not at the local level.

کلیدواژه ها:

Cultural heritage ، Sportization ، Traditional sports