Beyond Depth: A Materialist Critique of Morgan’s Conventionalism of Sport and Geertz’s Symbolic Play∗

Autores

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17230/co-herencia.23.45.8664

Palavras-chave:

anthropology of play, philosophy of sport, conventionalism, internalism, materiality, William J. Morgan, Clifford Geertz, Thomas Malaby

Resumo

This article interrogates the unexamined parallels between William J. Morgan’s “deep conventionalism” in the philosophy of sport and Clifford Geertz’s “deep play” in anthropology. While both frameworks reject universalist explanations—Morgan by anchoring sport’s normativity in social conventions, Geertz by decoding the Balinese cockfight (sabungan) as a symbolic struggle for status—they share a critical blind spot: their neglect of the material relations that enable and constrain cultural practices. Through a comparative critique, we demonstrate how Morgan’s internalist conventionalism and Geertz’s hermeneutics inadvertently naturalise oppressive social hierarchies (such as racial exclusion and gendered violence) by severing practices from their material conditions. Engaging Thomas Malaby’s anthropology of play, we argue that sport must be analysed as a contested terrain where symbolic meaning and materiality intersect. The article concludes by advocating for a historical approach that transcends the “deep/shallow” dichotomy.

Biografia do Autor

  • Paulo Antunes, Universidade Beira Interior

    Professor auxiliar convidado no Departamento de Comunicação, Filosofia e Política, Faculdade de Artes e Letras (FAL), Universidade Beira Interior (UBI) (Covilhã, Portugal); é também investigador pós-doutorado no PRAXIS — Centro de Filosofia, Política e Cultura da UBI. Em 2024, concluiu um pós-doutorado no âmbito do projeto The Public Interest: A Politico-Philosophical Investigation (EXPL/FER-ETC/1226/202; DOI: https://doi.org/10.54499/CEECINST/00157/2018/CP1643/CT0004). Doutorou-se em Filosofia pela Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa (2021). É membro da Associação de Filosofia do Desporto de Língua Portuguesa (AFDLP).

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2026-10-27

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Antunes, P. F. R. (2026). Beyond Depth: A Materialist Critique of Morgan’s Conventionalism of Sport and Geertz’s Symbolic Play∗. Co-herencia. https://doi.org/10.17230/co-herencia.23.45.8664