Track And Field Analysis

Before our current era, an almighty civilization practiced the art of throwing, running, and jumping in a coliseum for thousands of people to watch in awe. This great sport came to be known as Track and Field, and many individuals participate in this sport today. I participated in Track for four years; out of those four years, I have run the 100-yard dash, the 4x100 relay, 4x200 relay, 200-yard dash and the 100-meter hurdles. As you can see, I have lots of experience with Track and field. With that said, I am going to analyze the sport Track and field, and then further explain the components of the social structure and culture. Track and Field has many visible aspects of material culture. Material culture is the physical objects that individuals construct and provide significance to (L. Sabol, personal communication, May, 2016). For example, in Track, the runners wear shoes that are explicitly made for the Track field. The shoes made for the Track are called spikes; runners wear spikes to have a better grip onto the Track. Another example of a material culture would be the starting blocks. The starting blocks are made of metal with spikes on the bottom the blocks. Many participants who are running in a 100, 200, or even

Values are “the standards by which people define what is good or bad, moral or immoral, proper or improper, desirable or undesirable, beautiful or ugly” (Benokraitis, 2015, p. 44). Values are mainly what people hold to be important and can usually be expressed by one word or a short phrase (L. Sabol, personal communication, May, 2016). In Track, participants tend to value the desire to win and feel that rush of excitement while being first to pass the winning line. In Track, participants also value fairness. For example, when in competition with other teams, the participants would like to be assured that the starter would fire the starter gun if someone false