Meaningful Play, Meaningful Pain: Learning the Purpose of Injury in Sport

Abstract

Despite public campaigns to inform the general public about the risk of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), research into what factors affect athletes’ decision to risk TBIs has found that increased knowledge about the biomedical consequences of TBIs does not necessarily alter “risky” behavior. Using ethnographic insights from boxing and recreational college gyms in the Midwest, I propose that, rather than an outcome of risky behavior, pain in TBIs is better understood as part of a broader process of socially meaningful play. Specifically, we should consider how play serves a psychosocial benefit for youth who understand the severity of TBIs but recognize the significance of sporting practices in their lives. This psychosocial benefit, however, varies between socially marginalized youth in boxing gyms and students engaged in recreational sports, and pain is differently experienced (cognitively and non-cognitively) in relation to socially meaningful play. I conclude with an examination of how gender, race, and sport-specific practices affect the different cultural experiences of TBIs, and place the practice of pugilism in bioarchaeological context, particularly related to lower status individuals.