{{Short description|Pre-modern/non-Western heritage sports}} {{For|the general concept of "traditional" physical sports (as opposed to esports or mind sports)|Sport}}
[[File:Kabaddi Game play(2273574).jpg|thumb|Kabaddi, a traditional Indian game which has become increasingly popular around the world.]]
'''Traditional sports and games''' (often abbreviated '''TSG''') are physical activities which were played for centuries by people around the world even before the civilization started, before the advent of modern Western sports. Many TSGs lost popularity or died off during the colonial era due to the imposition and spread of Western sports.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Leng |first1=Ho Keat |last2=Pyun |first2=Do Young |last3=Lin |first3=Yen-Chun |date=2023-07-14 |title=Special issue: sports and leisure management in Asia |journal=Managing Sport and Leisure |language=en |pages=1–3 |doi=10.1080/23750472.2023.2207865 |issn=2375-0472 |s2cid=259909018|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Vaczi |first1=Mariann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GgrWEAAAQBAJ |title=Indigenous, Traditional, and Folk Sports: Contesting Modernities |last2=Bairner |first2=Alan |date=2023-10-06 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-98328-9 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Karen |first1=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0QXrBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA551 |title=Sociological Perspectives on Sport: The Games Outside the Games |last2=Washington |first2=Robert E. |date=2015-03-02 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-97394-2 |language=en}}</ref> Further decline has occurred in the post-colonial era.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Endangered Species of the Physical Cultural Landscape: Globalization, Nationalism, and Safeguarding Traditional Folk Games |url=https://scholar.google.ca/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=MPiBwVEAAAAJ&citation_for_view=MPiBwVEAAAAJ:IjCSPb-OGe4C |access-date=2023-10-26 |website=scholar.google.ca}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gilmour |first1=Callum |last2=Rowe |first2=David |date=2012-12-01 |title=Sport in Malaysia: National Imperatives and Western Seductions |url=https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ssj/29/4/article-p485.xml |journal=Sociology of Sport Journal |language=en-US |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=485–505 |doi=10.1123/ssj.29.4.485 |issn=0741-1235|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shehu |first=Jimoh |date=2004 |title=Sport for all in postcolony: Is there a place for indigenous games in physical education curriculum and research in Africa |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/18146620408566267 |journal=Africa Education Review |language=en |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=21–33 |doi=10.1080/18146620408566267 |issn=1814-6627 |s2cid=143955748|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
UNESCO promotes TSG as a form of "intangible cultural heritage", and had a dedicated TSG Advisory Committee.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kumari |first=Sonia |date=2019-03-29 |title=UNESCO TSG visited for the possibilities of organizing Traditional Sports and Games in South Korea |url=https://www.sportskeeda.com/sports/unesco-tsg-visited-for-the-possibilities-of-organizing-traditional-sports-and-games-in-south-korea |access-date=2023-11-05 |website=www.sportskeeda.com |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Berti |first=Francesca |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CNPQEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA72 |title=The Shared Space of Play: Traditional Games as a Tool of Intercultural Education |date=2023-07-10 |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |isbn=978-3-643-91231-2 |language=en}}</ref> Four Collective Consultation Meetings: 2006 in Paris, 2009 in Teheran, 2017 in Paris have been held so far by UNESCO, with the fourth one in 2018 in Istanbul gathering more than 82 participants from 40 countries.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Khan |first1=Khalil Ahmed |last2=Tluehan |first2=Bekbolat |date=2019 |title=UNESCO traditional sports and games |url=https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/unesco-traditional-sports-and-games |journal=Педагогико-психологические и медико-биологические проблемы физической культуры и спорта |volume=14 |issue=2 (eng) |pages=5–8}}</ref>
TSG has been linked to the way in which various peoples followed religious duties and promoted social cooperation along with a better understanding of their relationship to nature;<ref>[https://www.icsspe.org/sites/default/files/Bulletin%20No.%2067.pdf Traditional Physical Cultures, Sport and Games] https://www.icsspe.org/</ref><ref>[https://samples.jblearning.com/0763749591/49591_ch03_mclean.pdf Early History of Recreation and Leisure] https://samples.jblearning.com/</ref><ref>[https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-997/patch2013_paper_2.pdf Traditional Sports and Games: A New Opportunity for Personalized Access to Cultural Heritage] https://ceur-ws.org/ Mariate Linaza, Kieran Moran, and Noel E. O’Connor</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Playing in nature: Traditional games and environmental stewardship |url=https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/playing-nature-traditional-games-and-environmental-stewardship |access-date=2023-11-19 |website=sportanddev |language=en}}</ref> TSG is also seen as a possible way to increase intercultural dialogue.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Saura |first1=Soraia Chung |last2=Zimmermann |first2=Ana Cristina |date=2021 |title=Traditional Sports and Games: Intercultural Dialog, Sustainability, and Empowerment |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=11 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2020.590301 |issn=1664-1078 |pmc=7873946 |pmid=33584427 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Parlebas |first=Pierre |date=2020 |title=The Universals of Games and Sports |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=11 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2020.593877 |pmid=33192937 |pmc=7609522 |issn=1664-1078 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
== History == {{See also|History of sport|Indian sports at the 1936 Summer Olympics|Traditional games in Africa}}
[[File:Old-Egyptian Kubb.png|thumb|Ancient Egyptian sports game]]
[[File:2014 Asian Games 3.jpg|thumb|Sepak takraw, a traditional Southeast Asian sport, being played at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, Korea.]]
During the colonial era, resistance to and influence from Western sports resulted in the standardization and introduction of organized competition for several traditional South Asian games such as kabaddi.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bromber |first1=Katrin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6LYZQyDBvRIC&pg=PA126 |title=Sport Across Asia: Politics, Cultures, and Identities |last2=Krawietz |first2=Birgit |last3=Maguire |first3=Joseph |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-88438-9 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Love |first1=Adam |last2=Dzikus |first2=Lars |date=2020-02-26 |title=How India came to love cricket, favored sport of its colonial British rulers |url=http://theconversation.com/how-india-came-to-love-cricket-favored-sport-of-its-colonial-british-rulers-132302 |access-date=2023-10-04 |website=The Conversation |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fischer-Tiné |first=Harald |date=2018-09-25 |title=Fitness for Modernity? The YMCA and physical-education schemes in late-colonial South Asia (''circa''1900–40) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0026749x17000300 |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=512–559 |doi=10.1017/s0026749x17000300 |s2cid=149530821 |issn=0026-749X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
From the 18th century onwards, researchers have taken a greater interest in the value of traditional games in elucidating cultural values and identities. For example, Joseph Strutt in 1801 wrote that "In order to form a just estimation of the character of any particular people, it is absolutely necessary to investigate the Sports and Pastimes most generally prevalent among them."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Domingo |first=Darryl P. |date=2018 |title=The Character of a People: Sports and Pastimes in Eighteenth-Century Britain |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/4/article/704512/summary |journal=Eighteenth-Century Life |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=81–88 |issn=1086-3192}}</ref> The modern Olympic Games were influenced by this thinking, and were founded by Pierre de Coubertin on the basis of "All games, all nations", though this aspect of the Olympics was never fully realized and quickly faded away after a few years, with mainly only Western sports being played.<ref name=":4" />
From the 1970's onwards, global attention and institutionalization has taken place to preserve TSG.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Come-back of traditional sports and games |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000088574 |access-date=2023-11-19 |website=unesdoc.unesco.org}}</ref> In some European countries, the revival of traditional games has served as a way for regional identities to be expressed in a political or educational way.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last1=Hardman |first1=Ken |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sVK7BN7q-bsC&pg=PA162 |title=Contemporary Issues in Physical Education: International Perspectives |last2=Green |first2=Ken |date=2011 |publisher=Meyer & Meyer Verlag |isbn=978-1-84126-312-0 |language=en}}</ref>
TSG has been increasingly accepted into international multi-sport events such as the Asian Games and SEA Games.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Service (KOCIS) |first=Korean Culture and Information |title=Some sports only available at Asian Games : Korea.net : The official website of the Republic of Korea |url=https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Sports/view?articleId=121842 |access-date=2023-11-19 |website=www.korea.net |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Creak |first=Simon |date=2017 |title=Eternal friends and erstwhile enemies: The regional sporting community of the Southeast Asian Games |journal=TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=147–172 |doi=10.1017/trn.2016.29 |s2cid=133117373 |issn=2051-364X|doi-access=free }}</ref>
== See also == * Ethnosport * List of children's games * World Indigenous Games
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* [https://www.unesco.org/en/sport-and-anti-doping/traditional-sports-and-games UNESCO] * [https://aejest.com/en/ AEJeST] (European platform with 105 organisations in 21 countries) * [https://www.traditionalsportsgames.org ICTSG] (International Council of Traditional Sports and Games) {{World topic|prefix=Traditional games of|title=Traditional games|noredlinks=yes}} Category:Traditional sports Category:Traditional games Category:Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity