Abstract
This research began with an attempt to examine how cultural performances and athletic rituals on the baseball diamond have become a stage for the presentation of indigenous culture. On the basis of the ethnography of these indigenous baseball teams, the study focused on their training processes and contests to examine the cultural characteristics of how they played the game. The following research questions are probed: (1) observing how indigenous baseball players and cheer squads made up of indigenous players and their relatives borrow, appropriate, and reconstruct elements of their culture in their athletic shouts and battle songs; (2) demonstrating how baseball promotes social solidarity, and how athletic rituals resolve conflicts and maintain social integration; and (3) analyzing how this athletic culture embodies belief systems concerning mana and taboos; and (4) illuminating the meaning of cultural production between baseball culture and indigenous culture. Findings produced three results. The study showed that the training process and athletic culture on the baseball diamond was a representative arena for the indigenous culture. In addition, athletic rituals and symbolic performances prevented conflicts and created a collective consciousness; that is, they not only stimulated the productivity of the team and reproduced a team culture but also mobilized emotions, reconstructed social relationships, and acted as a catalyst for exercise energy. The research also found that the athletic rituals reflected the meaning of the cultural contests in that their social functions are based on value systems that the players can relate to and stand on. This enables them to maintain an athletic structure that can operate stably. The recognition of this playing culture on the baseball diamond provides us with an opportunity to widen our views and realize how indigenous culture can present and add diversity to our present-day society.