On Running and Becoming Human PDF
Preview On Running and Becoming Human
ON RUNNING AND BECOMING HUMAN An Anthropological Perspective Thomas F. Carter On Running and Becoming Human Thomas F. Carter On Running and Becoming Human An Anthropological Perspective Thomas F. Carter University of Brighton Eastbourne, UK ISBN 978-3-319-74843-6 ISBN 978-3-319-74844-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74844-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018935240 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Pattern adapted from an Indian cotton print produced in the 19th century Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To Kiri for being, and making her environs and mine become our world A cknowledgments This book would have never emerged without the great encouragement about running I received from Jeff Pagel and Phil Rogosheske as a young man. Though they are unlikely to ever see this and probably do not remem- ber an earnest, shy, scrawny runner, their early influence and wisdom remains with me to this day. I have trod many paths over years and those paths eventually brought me to Eastbourne. The support of my compatri- ots at the University of Brighton and our occasional runs along the seafront and around Whitbread Hollow served as therapeutic mobile meetings where many an idea and project were hashed out over the years, though they had no idea that this project would ever begin and emerge. Most notable among those who ran alongside me were members of the Chelsea School: John Sugden, Dan Burdsey, Jayne Caudwell, and John Lambert. A debt of gratitude, and probably a good bottle of red, goes to Mark Doidge for putting me in touch with the commissioning editors at Palgrave in the UK who kindly passed me on to the great staff at Palgrave USA, who have been enthusiastic and incredibly helpful and understanding with this project as it ran its own route through Palgrave’s publication processes. Alexis Nelson, Mary al-Sayed, and Kyra Saniewski have been fantastic before handing the baton over to the production team. Time to lace up my shoes and head for the hills. vii c ontents 1 First Steps 1 2 A Runner’s Mind 19 3 A Runner’s Environs 43 4 A Runner’s Body 65 ix CHAPTER 1 First Steps Abstract This essay introduces the basis of the book by resituating how we should think about running. Running is both a natural and learned form of locomotion. It is a form of enskilled movement that we learn at a very young age. Learning how to move and how to sense those move- ments are crucial elements to the emergence of the human mind. Thus, running is so much more than a lifestyle sport mostly enjoyed by the white middle classes based on the value of endurance. Rather, our first running steps facilitate the emergence of the human mind and thus one of the ways we become human beings. This introductory essay then lays the ground- work for the three entangled essays that comprise the whole of this book and mirrors the dynamic of mind, environs and body that leads to our becoming human. Keywords Running • Enskilled movement • Learning • Becoming • Being I don’t wear earphones when I run. I hate having music blaring in my ears, cutting me off from the rest of the world. A song might enter my head accompanying the rhythm of my movement. No song in particular; just some familiar pop song dredged up out of the recesses of my mind and resonating through the echo chamber that is my skull. Instead, I strive to be like N. Scott Momaday’s runner: © The Author(s) 2018 1 T. F. Carter, On Running and Becoming Human, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74844-3_1 2 T. F. CARTER He was alone and running on. All of his being was concentrated in the sheer motion of running on, and he was past caring about the pain. Pure exhaus- tion laid hold of his mind, and he could see at last without having to think. He could see the rain and the rivers and the fields beyond. He could see the dark hills at dawn. He was running, and under his breath he began to sing.1 I, however, certainly do not sing when I run. Wheeze, maybe. But sing? Definitely not. I stride across the South Downs, a ridge of chalk hills in the South of England. The windswept, steeply sloping grassy fields practically disappear beneath my feet as my awareness of my feet contacting the ground slips away with every meter I cross. I have no idea how far I have gone or how long I have been gone. I simply am. I am running and thus I am a runner and as such, I am thoroughly ensconced as part of the world. I am not separate from it; my awareness takes in the rhythmic shush of waves caressing the shingle far below, the cry of terns coming off their cliffside nests or larks suddenly erupting out of cover and hovering above me as I approach and then pass. The rustling of something unseen in the gorse, the play of the clouds and sunlight mirror the dance of the long grass and my own legs, and the wind’s soft caress across my skin softly echoes the passage of birds overhead and my footfalls on the exposed chalky soil. I am aware of all these things as much as I am aware of my body—there is no distinction between it and the birds, the wind, and the sea. To become fully human is to become an integrated aspect of the world much as Momaday describes. This manifestation of being alive, of being a runner, is one that is dif- ficult to articulate yet is a relatively common feeling amongst runners as well as other practitioners of various physical activities. It is through physi- cal exertion, and the sensory experiences of those exertions, that one becomes more attuned to, more aware of, being; not just being in isola- tion as a solitary individual entity but as being part of the world. This expansive sense of existence, the making of the runner, is achieved through various sensory experiences. That sense of being, however, does not even begin to be captured in the popular and academic articulations about run- ning. Something vital is being missed: the ways of being that Momaday captures and it is what Momaday extracts that is the focus of this book. This book is about running, but it is not about how running is most commonly thought of. Running is not what we think it is. It is more. “Running” commonly means a particular form of running that is both culturally and historically specific. Running has been incorporated into FIRST STEPS 3 what we commonly recognize as sport, and therefore there are certain evaluative assumptions made about becoming a runner and the act of run- ning itself. Those values are embedded so deeply into the current secular, consumer capitalist, globalized worldview that the idea that running might actually be something much less and much more than this eludes most runners. They glimpse it, sense it just beyond their ken, but cannot seem to come to grips with that elusive will-o’-the-wisp at the cusp of their awareness precisely because of the underpinning values that hold them to their particular ways of moving. Runners are ubiquitous presences in most leading socioeconomic capital- ist societies in the world. In their brightly colored clothing, these runners are class-specific, oriented toward capital as evidenced in their motivations for personal betterment, to both feel better about themselves and also exhibit the dominant tropes of good health embodied by the middle classes of Europe and America—most especially, but certainly not exclusively, the white middle classes. The self-help books, the “runner’s guides,” the stores selling advice and technologies, all reflect the predominant message that anyone can run.2 Popular first-person accounts of the “average” person regaling their “adventures” and how running makes them feel reinforce the notion that anyone can run.3 Of course, anyone can run, but what those stories really mean is that most anyone can become a “runner.” But one can only be a runner if one follows certain symbolic precepts, one of which is to consume the latest technologies that show anyone passing that you are a runner. There is an entire “running” industry with its own ideological con- struction of “the runner” tied into t echnology, specific values, and tech- niques of the body4 that reflect twenty-first-century capitalist values. One is that hard work will inevitably lead to success. This belief, a cen- tral and core dictum of the runner’s way of life, persists despite the simple truth that there is no reliable connection between the quantity of effort and the realization of one’s dreams. Another core value held to be self- evidently true is that the virtue of hard work is somehow ennobling. The very act of striving to improve, to dedicate one’s self to a task, makes you a better person. A related value is that through running you can become the person you always wanted to be and that if you manage to transform your being through running that will naturally lead to a complete transfor- mation of yourself and the rest of your life as well. This too is part of the running dogma. All of these are patently false as universal laws. They might apply to any given individual. Such personal change can happen. But none of those values are inherent to the actual act of running and none are guaranteed to prove true for you.
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