Endurance game

An endurance game is a game where the object is to last as long as possible under some sort of stress. The stress might be physical pain, fear, social embarrassment or any other negative sensation.

The important distinguishing feature of endurance games is that the object is to outlast one's opponents, rather than outdo them in any test of skill. Endurance games are common in schoolyards, as they provide a way for children to establish a pecking-order based on toughness. They are also a feature of hazing rituals in institutions where hazing is common.

One playing an endurance game grants consent to other players' possible harm to oneself. One child justified hurting others during games which require one to do so, saying, "If they know the game then they know what's going to happen."^[1]

Among the Inuit, endurance games, "stress the body and test the limits of the individual's psychological and physical endurance," thereby helping, along with other games, to, "prepare children for the rigors of the arctic environment by stressing hand-eye coordination, problem solving, and physical strength and endurance."^[2]

Examples

Ethnic games

Ear pulling, an Inuit sport

Electric games

Television

There have been a number of game shows or reality shows which have included tests of endurance. This style of game show was pioneered in Japan such as Za Gaman — "The Endurance" — and there are now several British and American shows which test the contestants in this way.

Film

In Never Say Never Again, James Bond is successful in defeating Maximillian Largo at an electric shock arcade game, Domination, similar to Shocking Duel, so he can pass word to Largo's mistress Domino Petachi that her brother Jack was murdered.

References

Notes

Citations

^ Frankel, Sam (2017). Negotiating Childhoods: Applying a Moral Filter to Children’s Everyday Lives, p.221. Springer. ISBN 9781137323491.
^ Nanda, Serena and Warms, Richard L. (2013). Cultural Anthropology, p.55-6. 11th edition. Cengage Learning. ISBN 9781285632858.

Sources

Gross, Albert (1986), Endurance, Dodd Mead, ISBN 9780396088882
Laso, Pau Waelder (2007), "Games of Pain", Leonardo, 40 (3), MIT Press: 239–242, doi:10.1162/leon.2007.40.3.238, JSTOR 20206411, S2CID 57560512
Downey, Greg (2007), "Producing Pain", Social Studies of Science, 37 (2), Sage Publications: 201–226, doi:10.1177/0306312706072174, JSTOR 25474514, S2CID 146216479
Hoad, Richard; Moore, Paul (2012), The World's Toughest Endurance Challenges, VeloPress, ISBN 9781934030912

External links

Media related to Endurance sports at Wikimedia Commons

[1] Frankel, Sam (2017). Negotiating Childhoods: Applying a Moral Filter to Children’s Everyday Lives, p.221. Springer. ISBN 9781137323491.

[2] Nanda, Serena and Warms, Richard L. (2013). Cultural Anthropology, p.55-6. 11th edition. Cengage Learning. ISBN 9781285632858.

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