The Meaning of Punches in Boxing : Between Body and Flesh
This paper explores the pugilistic involvement as a combat experience whose reasons and effects surpass the simple existence in the ring. The findings are based on the ethnography of a group of boxers conducted for four years in Strasbourg, France, between 1999 and 2002. Describing training and constituent biographic schemes of boxers’ career paths, this paper shows what punches mean to pugilists. The study of what happens inside the ring and during training doesn’t entirely reveal the pugilists’ real life experiences of stigmatizations and disqualifications outside the ring. The harsh “life blows” leave scars and stitches on boxers, who respond to them in their own way : with their fists charged beyond any practical reason to fight for all the symbolic reasons.