Sport and gender construction in the postcolonial context: Between East and West — the paradoxical effects of globalization

This article examines the social uses of the body by the French of Tamil origin in the sports centres of Pondicherry (southern India). It reviews the ways in which the body participates in the development and expression of gender arrangements in a postcolonial context faced with globalization. An analysis of semi-structured interviews shows the extent to which the structure of gender relationships, although occurring in a specific community, is both affected by the logic of identity related to cultural affiliations and linked by more global imperatives to the symbolic relationships between the local area and the former motherland, Metropolitan France. Finally, it appears that far from stigmatizing evident gender positions, the organization of roles between the sexes follows a sociocultural rationale that leads couples to adopt strategies which accentuate the structure of gender. On returning to the country of origin, the play of gender opposition and complementarity thus enables the symbolic gender advantages achieved through emigration to be retained while at the same time avoiding the risk of social exclusion.