The Tarahumara (Rarámuri) are a Native American people from Chihuahua, Mexico, who have long been famous for running, but there is widespread incredulity about how and why they run such long distances. Some characterizations of Tarahumara running are also based on stereotypical views of athleticism among non-Western peoples, here labeled the “fallacy of the athletic savage.” To place Tarahumara running more appropriately into its larger social and functional contexts, we combined our own observations and ethnographic evidence with interviews of 10 elderly Tarahumara runners about running during hunting as well as during footraces. We detail how running played an integral role in persistence hunting, in which groups of hunters employed a variety of methods to chase animals on foot. Running during hunting, moreover, is linked to men’s and women’s footraces, and both kinds of running are considered powerful forms of prayer. Long-distance running is also related to endurance dances that have important spiritual dimensions. Although the Tarahumara do not train to run in any traditional Western sense, and not all of them are great runners, the Tarahumara, like many Native American peoples, consider running, along with other endurance-based activities, to be important social and spiritual pursuits.

中文翻译：

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在 Tarahumara (Rarámuri) 文化中奔跑

塔拉乌马拉人（Rarámuri）是来自墨西哥奇瓦瓦州的美洲原住民，他们长期以来以跑步而闻名，但人们普遍怀疑他们如何以及为什么要跑这么长的距离。Tarahumara 跑步的一些特征也基于非西方人对运动能力的刻板印象，这里被称为“运动野蛮人的谬误”。为了将 Tarahumara 跑步更恰当地置于其更大的社会和功能环境中，我们将我们自己的观察和人种学证据与 10 位老年 Tarahumara 跑步者的访谈结合起来，了解在狩猎和跑步期间跑步。我们详细介绍了跑步如何在持久性狩猎中发挥不可或缺的作用，在这种狩猎中，一群猎人采用各种方法步行追逐动物。此外，在狩猎期间奔跑，与男子和女子的赛跑有关，两种跑步都被认为是强大的祈祷形式。长跑也与具有重要精神维度的耐力舞有关。尽管塔拉乌马拉人不接受任何传统西方意义上的跑步训练，而且并非所有人都是优秀的跑步者，但塔拉乌马拉人与许多美洲原住民一样，认为跑步以及其他基于耐力的活动是重要的社会和精神追求.