Abstract
Samoa, Samoans, and their culture have been strongly connected to American football, such that the sport has come to occupy a central place within Samoan culture where Samoan athletes can achieve success, gain respect, and access opportunities for mobilization and migration. Lisa Uperesa offers insights into the costs and perceived benefits of a career in American football as well as the structures that impact Samoan youth's participation in the sport. Her examination of American football in Samoa in Gridiron Capital: How American football became a Samoan game captivates readers and sheds light on this phenomenon.
Uperesa organizes the book into five chapters. The first two chapters examine the development, popularization, and integration of American football into Samoan communities, grounding the chapters in the histories and traditions of Samoa. Uperesa first establishes the context and the larger social, cultural, transnational, and economic factors that were involved in the emergence of American football in Samoa as an opportunity for migration and mobility. She then goes on to discuss how Samoan culture (Fa’asamoa), the hierarchical system (Fa’amatai), and its key component of tautua (loosely translated as service), have expanded to include American football, as well as the effects of their evolution. The last three chapters examine the social worlds that transnational sport migrants must navigate, and how these worlds are constructed. Here, Uperesa utilizes an intersectional lens to analyze how the construction of Samoan athletes has been shaped by imperialistic perceptions and antiquated stereotypes of Samoans and Samoa in American media. She then discusses the process of commoditization within the institution of American football, specifically looking at the crucial gain of what she has conceptualized as gridiron capital. Finally, the concussion crisis within American football is explored, illustrating how Samoans have come to understand the risks of participating in American football. Uperesa's examination of American football in Samoa illustrates the complexity of Samoa and Samoan culture, providing an intriguing discussion that is socially, historically, and culturally grounded.
Uperesa relies on various information sources resulting in a rich and complex analysis.
For example, throughout the book, Uperesa draws upon ethnographic fieldwork, oral history, archival research, and an analysis of media sources from 2007 to 2015. During this time, she was able to access Samoan spaces and communities through many different avenues. This includes doing focused research on the island of Tutuila, attending American football games and practices in her home village of Fagatogo, observing American football clinics/camps run by US-based coaches, and attending Samoa Bowl Committee meetings. Her presence in these spaces permitted her to interact with and interview athletes, coaches, parents/family members of players, sports administrators, and other key stakeholders such as matai (those who hold customary family titles, and government officials), allowing for multiple perspectives of the phenomenon of American football in Samoa. In addition, she offers depth and insights from her own personal and familial experiences in American football as a Samoan. Indeed, Uperesa's positionality of being an insider to the Samoan community as well as her personal ties to American football allows the readers to grasp the importance of understanding and examining phenomenon.
A discussion of the strategies for rigour would have been beneficial as it would have clarified her methodological approach, establishing trust and confidence in her findings, especially in relation to her positionality and whether she engaged in reflexivity. Nonetheless, we can infer that the methodology employed aligns with three strategies for rigour (Cresswell & Miller, 2000): (a) prolonged engagement in the field, as she had a long exposure in the Samoan American football community and the spaces which they occupy; (b) triangulation because she examines the topics utilizing multiple sources of information; and (c) a thick-rich description, as throughout the book, readers are provided vivid descriptions of the setting and events that took place. Although she does not outline her strategies for rigour, Uperesa's analysis is scientifically grounded and articulately communicated to a wide range of readers.
Uperesa's book makes important contributions. First, she introduces the novel concept of gridiron capital, which she defines “as a specific set of bodily practices, abilities, and orientations that can be converted profitably in gridiron football” (p. 109). This is distinct from the conceptualization of other forms of capital, such as social capital, cultural capital, and economic capital. Gridiron capital is gained through the training of one's body, rather than the actual or potential gain of resources through social networks, social assets of the individual, and/or economic resources (p.109). Particularly, gridiron capital exists in American football-specific skills and abilities that are valuable for players on-field performance, the social currency attached to participation, and enhanced brand value (p.109). This is one of the main unique contributions that Uperesa makes through this book as it provides an important conceptualization which to understand how Samoan athletes navigate the institution of American football as a commodity. She argues that the accumulation of gridiron capital is necessary for an athlete's success in American football, but athletes can resist further commodification through other measures of self-worth (p. 21).
Second, Uperesa contributes to the understanding of American football in Samoa by centreing the experiences, voices, and perspectives of the Samoan community regarding football. By having Samoan voices and experiences at the centre, Uperesa captures the complexity and the nuances of the phenomenon as well as illustrates the role of the larger social, cultural, transnational, and economic factors. This has provided the creation of new knowledge, resulting in a better understanding of Samoan athletes in the American football. Uperesa contributes to the existing scholarship which examines the role of sport in the connection of diasporic communities as a cultural form.
Third, the book provides insight into the positives and negatives of American football facilitating transnational movement through the conceptualization of athleticism as a form of labour. Uperesa's examination of the construction of the perceived opportunities which American football may offer, and the true cost and consequences of participation allows the readers to understand the reality of the players. Uperesa provides and provokes vital and increasingly relevant discussions regarding Samoans in the sporting space. As globalization and transnational movements continue to increase, the insights that she offers will continue to be evermore relevant and valuable in understanding the role of sport in diasporic communities. The insights that Uperesa provides regarding the athlete's experiences could be translated into policy and social change to ensure their health and well-being are protected. This book contributes to the existing knowledge by providing novel conceptualizations and knowledge which scholars can utilize to understand the phenomenon of American football in Samoa and potentially apply in future studies. Moreover, Uperesa invokes questions around how perceptions/narratives may change as media, representation, and diversity evolve and new media forms continue to be developed.
Although Uperesa's media analysis of the dimension of gender briefly discusses women's roles in relation to football culture, the examination of their representation as football athletes is limited. This exclusion may be due to low representation of these groups in the media. However, an explanation for this decision would have been valuable to the readers in order to clearly understand Uperesa's reasoning. Furthermore, a more expansive analysis of Samoan women's and non-binary peoples’ lived experiences as football players would have been valuable. As American football is perceived as a hypermasculine space, it is important to consider that access and gain gridiron capital maybe only available to bodied cis-gender men, thus American football's facilitation of transnational movement may reinforce other unequal relations of power. By focusing most of the book on the male experience within sports, there are experiences, power dynamics and forces that have not been considered or examined.
This book is intended to be read by students and academics interested in anthropology, sociology of sport, and sport as a cultural form in transnational communities. In addition, Uperesa structured the discussion so that it can also be consumed by general audiences who are interested in sport, culture, and transnational/diasporic communities. Presenting this history in genealogical order and interweaving personal accounts to emphasize the impacts of the changes that are occurring, result in a journey that readers are able to understand and connect to with ease. However, those who are somewhat familiar with sociological concepts, such as intersectionality, may have an easier time comprehending some parts, but this does not mean that novices cannot enjoy the book. It should also be noted that although American football is the space and institution of interest, prior knowledge about the sport is not required for one to comprehend and enjoy the book. Lisa Uperesa presents the discussion in a way that is consumable by a wide audience, while also contributing impactful analyses and discussions to the existing scholarship. Overall, Gridiron Capital: How American football became a Samoan game is written well and provides an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon that is accessible to a wide audience, resulting in a greater understanding of Samoa, sport, transnational movement.
