The Elementary Forms of Sports Fandom

Abstract

This essay explores sports fandom through a Durkheimian theoretical framework that foregrounds the totemic link between civic collective and team symbol. Specifically, I analyze the myths, kinship, and rituals of Philadelphia Phillies fans during their historic 2008 World Series victory in the U.S.’ professional baseball league using a limited participant observation of beliefs and behaviors on display at public events and articulated through the sports media. I argue that the totem’s success offered a momentous opportunity for intense social unity and reaffirmed group ideals—at both the civic and kin level—and mirrored a quasi-religious functionality at a moment of declining integrative institutions. The “collective effervescence” and communitas generated during this period represented a celebration of identity and indexed solidarity. The rituals attendant to the actual sports event are, I argue, as essential as what happens on the field, for these rituals preserve the collective memory that upholds the totem and, in turn, the group.