An Unusual Cultural Product: French Billiards - Scholarly Game and Recreational Sport

Abstract

The symbolic properties of French billiards single it out compared to other sports activities and contribute in some ways to classify it among cultural productions separate from usual sports activities. After deciphering the meaning of "the spirit of the game" in the universe of players by the means of ethnographical observations, we turned our attention to showing how it made sense to spectators of a big European competition. The data processing of the questionnaire revealed that the social properties of the spectators determined by the level of qualification, profession, age, sports participation, etc., were largely mobilised to decipher the game and the register of symbolic signification which is associated to it. In reflection to the discipline the spectators adopt at the same time very different codes of behaviour to those used in other sports and confirm, in a mirror like effect, the representations convoyed by the participants.