This presentation will draw on early research findings from a PhD project on Master Highland games competitors. The research examines the experience of men and their relations to women in a practice dominated by masculine norms. James will explore the life history of these men in order to comprehend how involvement in such practices has come about, how they became embedded in the athletes’ lives and how their bodily ageing has been experienced. The research hopes to shed light on the empowering experience of men in living through the ageing experience. The presentation will explore issues of risk, how it is understood, managed and averted by the athletes in the pursuit of continued physical exertion. The presentation will finish by looking at how ethnicity and national identity can be driving forces in the participation of culturally determined physical activities.
http://www.slideshare.net/PhoenixCass/keeping-the-tradition-alive