Page 103 - Culture Media Language Working Papers in Cultural Studies

92 GREEN FARM SCOUT CAMP

flagged behind. While the leaders enjoyed the better supplies, the lads were more
numerous, so that the fight became a defensive battle for the most part, as far as
we leaders were concerned. The lads enjoyed themselves immensely, in so far as
the special status of the leaders, their privileged role in the troop, was
undermined for the period of the game, and the role relationship became the site
of a competitive struggle on the distinctive terrain of the boys.
Later in the day, after supper, a good-humoured rough-and-tumble developed
on the field, with leaders on one side and boys on the other. This time, however,
it was started by the Scouters, notably Pat. A good deal of chasing and wrestling
ensued; lads rolled over on the grass, trying to pin down the leaders. Then
unused to this sort of game, I chose to wrestle with the least threatening of the
boys. While the whole conflict was good-humoured, the incident constituted
wrestling ‘for real’, in so far as certain physical aims associated with wrestling
were actively pursued. There was no punching or gouging, again in accordance
with the rules of wrestling. Only a couple of minor injuries were sustained on
both sides during the fifteen minutes that the event lasted. This event
corresponds very much to the dynamic of the last-mentioned incident, in that the
theme of physical mastery prevailed. On reflection, perhaps we might conclude
that it was the water fight whose form equalized the leaders more effectively than
the wrestling, since their advantage of strength came out most clearly there. Thus
the leader, Pat, actually initiated the wrestling, in which his physical strength and
height enabled him to match the efforts of two or three lads. The young lads,
through the mechanism of the game (especially the completely informal game)
were able to engage the leaders in direct competitive strife on a symbolic ground
of their own. The responses of Pat and the rest of the young leaders to the
invitations of the boys demonstrated that the organization of roles at their
command possessed an element of boyish sporting aggression in which the
differences of the respective statuses of the boys and controllers were
temporarily suspended, to the satisfaction of all concerned.