Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-76mfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-15T21:31:59.735Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sports, team games, and physical skill competitions as an important source of symbolic material culture with low preservation probability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2025

Andrew C. Gallup Open the ORCID record for Andrew C. Gallup [Opens in a new window]  and
Omar Tonsi Eldakar
Andrew C. Gallup*
Affiliation:
David S. Olton Behavioral Biology Program, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Omar Tonsi Eldakar
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA a.c.gallup@gmail.com oeldakar@gmail.com
*
*Corresponding author.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Sports, team games, and physical skill competitions appear to be a human universal and may have been prevalent throughout the hominin lineage. These activities are cognitively complex and can be associated with a distinctive and symbolic material culture. Yet, many of the artifacts used by foraging groups for sports, team games, and athletic competitions often have a low preservation probability.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e9
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bale, J., & Sang, J. (2013). Kenyan running: Movement culture, geography and global change. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, D. E. (1991). Human universals. McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Deaner, R. O., Balish, S. M., & Lombardo, M. P. (2016). Sex differences in sports interest and motivation: An evolutionary perspective. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 10(2), 73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deaner, R. O., & Smith, B. A. (2013). Sex differences in sports across 50 societies. Cross-Cultural Research, 47(3), 268–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furley, P. (2019). What modern sports competitions can tell us about human nature. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(2), 138–155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gallup, A. C., & Deaner, R. O. (2021). A Darwinian approach to the study of sports, games, and athletics. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 15(2), 89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lew-Levy, S., Reckin, R., Lavi, N., Cristóbal-Azkarate, J., & Ellis-Davies, K. (2017). How do hunter-gatherer children learn subsistence skills? A meta-ethnographic review. Human Nature, 28, 367–394.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindblom, K. G. (1916). The Akamba in British East Africa: An ethnological monograph. Appelberg.Google Scholar
Lombardo, M. P. (2012). On the evolution of sport. Evolutionary Psychology, 10(1), 1–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murdock, G. (1967). Ethnographic atlas. University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, J. M., Arth, M. J., & Bush, R. R. (1959). Games in culture. American Anthropologist, 61(4), 597–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugiyama, M. S., Mendoza, M., & Sugiyama, L. (2021). War games: Intergroup coalitional play fighting as a means of comparative coalition formidability assessment. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 15(2), 91–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugiyama, M. S., Mendoza, M., White, F., & Sugiyama, L. (2018). Coalitional play fighting and the evolution of coalitional intergroup aggression. Human Nature, 29, 219–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sutton-Smith, B., & Roberts, J. M. (1971). The cross-cultural and psychological study of games. International Review of Sport Sociology, 6(1), 79–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turnbull, C. M. (1982). The ritualization of potential conflict between the sexes among the Mbuti. In Leacock, E. & Lee, R. (Eds.), Politics and history in band societies (pp. 133–156). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar