Anthropological Meaning of Sportsmans Habitus (Socio-Philosophical Analysis)

The author considers the concept habitusto be rather productive for the purposes of philosophical and culturological research of sports activity, also comprising the heuristicpotential. There are not enough research papers, devoted to the cultural-anthropological analysis of sport corporal practices, in whichcorporal transformations and problems of cognitive styles dependence on corporal habitus are investigated. Habitus means a complex ofindividual corporal skills represented in gait, gesticulations, manners, which reflect the crystallization of the acquired personal experiencein depth of his or her corporal consciousness. Habitus unites persons mental and physical preferences accompanied by thechoice of different personal practice schemes. The main feature of habitus is its unconscious structure. Unconsciousness of habitus isdefined by its corporal nature: attitudes, preferences (or dispositions according to Borides) enter the corporal nature and show in individualstyles of life. Investigating sports which deal with human corporality as a kind of social practice, the author comes to a conclusionthat sports are not merely a conglomerate of customs, habits and physical preferences, but also a style characteristic of culture, thereflection of habitus according to Bourdieu. Models of sports action: their configurations, spatial structure, relations among participants,samples of energy application have basic differences at the level of peoples corporal organization in numerous kinds of world sportcompetitions. The research of ethnologic features of corporal behaviour and sports practices is reflected in the concept ethnomotricite.The author believes that M. Merleau-Pontys understanding of corporal schemes or body patterns, which set, limit and define consciousnessopportunities, have something in common with P.Bourdieus habitus. Corporal schemes are a special sort of life styles, whichorganize human body movements and define its interrelations with the world around. The author considers that phenomenal achievementsin sports can be explained by a sportsmans habitus, relevant to his or her kind of sports, which helps the mind to distinguish, feeland plan a necessary vector of movement and action. The harmonious partnership of environment with a sportsmans body becomespossible due to habitus. Thus, cultural history of humankind, the history of creation of instruments of labour, tools, metric systems andactivity technologies including sports is simultaneously the history of human body formation.

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