“Volkekunde” in the academic and rugby world of South Africa’s Dr Danie Craven
Abstract
This article is a foray into the field of anthropology (“volkekunde” in
Afrikaans) and sport history. It examines aspects of the sport-related thinking
of a noted luminary in South Africa’s rugby world, Dr Danie Craven of
Stellenbosch. He was not only an outstanding rugby player but also for
many years an influential chairperson of the South African Rugby Board.
The possibility is probed that his outlook was at least in part informed by his
background as an anthropologist or the Afrikaans variant of a “volkekundige”
with its own emphases. It is argued that to some extent his academic exposure
to “volkekunde” heightened for instance his understanding of the role of the
New Zealand Māori in that country’s rugby culture and some insights spilled
over into his attempts to bring coloured South African players closer to the
mainstream of rugby in South Africa, not always with the necessary political
sophistication or finesse. Finally, it is argued that what he called the “spirit” of
rugby, might have been informed by anthropological precepts.