ENGLISH TITLE: From community rivalry to identity re-aggregation: a semiotic-anthropological analysis of the “third-half “in rugby

ABSTRACT: This article aims to shed light on a practice that exists only in rugby — that is, the pride of this sport, the third half — from a sociological perspective and more particularly in a Goffmanian perspective. I will analyze the match as a stage on which confront both communities (two teams) and the third–half in rugby as the slide (or “posterior area”, according to Goffman). In this slide, the two communities will merge into a large collective body. At first we shall consider the rugby match as the place where community rivalry culminates until reaching its climax. In a second time, we will develop a semiotic–anthropological analysis of the third half–time in rugby, paying particular attention to the restorative and regenerative functions of the meal commonly shared after the game, which make the opponents of the day become part of a large collective body, also healing their fatigue with invigorating dishes (which, in turn, recall a peculiar identity and tradition, mainly connected to the Southwestern context).

KEYWORDS: rugby; rite; meal; identity; community.