Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-1998

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education

Major Professor

Joan Paul

Committee Members

Joy DeSensi, John Finger, William Morgan, Clinton Allison

Abstract

The last few decades of the nineteenth century involved transformations in the assumptions and practice of American leisure. The appropriateness of certain pastimes to an emerging modem nation was increasingly an issue in rapidly urbanizing industrial centers. In particular, blood sport (e.g., cockfighting, dog fighting, bull fighting, and baiting contests) was perceived to hinder the advancement of civilization. This dissertation is a historical study of the process by which blood sport was removed from dominant culture. A case study of the marginalization of blood sport in New Orleans, Louisiana from 1870 to 1900 determined who was responsible for suppression attempts, why they wished to suppress blood sport, and how they persuaded others to adopt their values and beliefs. The concept of modernization was employed as a viable framework for analyzing the marginalization of blood sport. The process of modernization was examined through the forces of industrialization, urbanization, rationalization, civilization, nationalism, civic idealism, bourgeoisification, and Darwinism. Modernization involved an intertwining of changes in the economic, political, social, and cultural structure with deliberate attempts to shift popular mentalities toward more rational and civilized ends. Marginalization involved deliberate attempts to remove a residual traditional practice and its associated values from the dominant culture. Attempts to suppress blood sport in New Orleans were initiated by agents of the respectable and dominant class. Key intellectuals were purveyors of a popular mentality, providing meaning and value to particular institutions and the structures of domination in which they operated. Working through the influential institutions of the press, the schools, the law, the church, and modern sport, they disseminated beliefs regarding the value of blood sport to the New Orleans public. Blood sport was not obliterated from the sporting culture. Rather, it was marginalized to a sub-cultural status. The marginalization of blood sport in New Orleans during the late nineteenth century came about through the directing of popular discourse, emphasizing the brutal and uncivilized nature of blood sport. Journalists, educators, and clergy repeatedly defined blood sport as detrimental to the advancement of New Orleans, contrasting the behavior and values of enthusiasts with those of civilized people. The cultural marginalization of blood sport, combined with humane education campaigns aimed at teaching kindness toward animals, effectively turned the public against the activity. To help ensure public disapproval, legislation made blood sport illegal.

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