Tiger Woods saga follows ancient script of transgression

In the most recent case, Tiger Woods’ alleged affairs breached our culture’s conventions. Crisis followed — the superstar’s headline-grabbing SUV crash followed by allegations of his involvement with a cocktail waitress and other women, and then by another late-night ambulance visit to his home. Both the real life of Tiger Woods the man and the vanilla corporate profile of Tiger Woods the brand seemed to crumble almost overnight.

Then came the third stage, an attempt at redressive action, with a Woods apologizing for “transgressions” and harm to his family.

And now we approach the potential fourth stage in this anthropological drama, namely reintegration and repair of the breech that has opened between the star golfer and his fans. It’s a sequence we’ve seen before with other sinning superstars, such as with Alex Rodriguez’s steroid use. In that case, A-Rod’s press conference confession, followed months later by his strong performance in the baseball playoffs and World Series, seemed to lead many fans to embrace him with real affection for the first time.

But as Victor Turner observed in Africa and as anthropologists have noted in other situations, social dramas can also end not with the crisis resolved, but with a permanent schism.

It’s already clear that Tiger Woods will not easily regain his place as one of the planet’s most ubiquitous pitchmen and culture heroes. Nowadays redressive action only seems to work if you’re willing to squirm and suffer a bit in front of the cameras.

As much as it goes against the control-freak personality of a man who named his yacht “Privacy,” Woods may have to face the ritual humiliation and penitence of a Barbara Walters interview or a teary press conference if he wants to refurbish his brand.

As for now, Woods occupies the space of what we anthropologists call “liminality,” namely the wilderness between one status and another. He is no longer the role model whose triumphs on the golf course seemed to be matched by his rectitude and family bliss off it. But, as he remains secluded from the prying public eye, neither do we know just what he will become.

During my research for an upcoming book about golf’s role in American society, I followed Woods around at the U.S. Open tournament several years ago. A crowd of 30,000 kicked up the dust as it trailed this single man like the devotees of Gandhi or some other prophet. Woods radiated charisma then, but I felt something icy and almost selfish about his capacity to shut out the world in pursuing that lower score. I also was struck by the nervousness and even fear through the gallery of coughing or moving during his swing and being singled out for his withering displeasure. Woods was like Apollo, a brilliant yet frightening god.

I understood how important Woods’ intense focus was to his success and, like all golfers, I now hope he will continue to thrill us with his athletic genius.

Simultaneously, though, the anthropologist side of me looks to the future and hopes he will find a way to let us in a bit more. The great golfer would not be the less for stopping sometimes to slap hands with a little boy or smile now and then to the crowd. As his aura of other-worldliness diminishes, in other words, perhaps he can find a way to replace it with something that will better integrate him with the rest of us mortals.

We know that he’s human now and I’m rooting for him — not only on the golf course but in life.

Orin Starn is a professor of cultural anthropology at Duke University and the author of the blog Golf Politics.