high culture
I had a friend who taught a course about the history and culture around wrestling. It almost wasn’t approved because according to the approver, wrestling doesn’t have cultural significance.
In some ways, they were right, but only if “cultural” refers to high culture, the culture that the rich are part of, that the educated are part of.
Wrestling is complex, both in the act itself, but also in the marketing, corporotocracy, and masculine culture that surrounds it. The people who follow wrestling vote, affect the economy, and affect the general ideology of their respective societies. You can learn a lot about these kinds of people from studying wrestling, especially since (if you are a stereotypical eggheaded academic) the people who follow wrestling are likely not in your usual social circle.
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We have a picture of ancient rome because of great philosophers who have left great works, but that high culture view of rome ignores the day to day reality that not everyone wore togas and stood around marble columns. This is something good historians know, but isn’t reflected when I google image search ancient rome.
