Play, Anthropology of

Don Handelman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Play is a malleable, changeable phenomenon, in terms of cognition, practice, and communication. Play places people into realities that are multiplicities of possibility. This article describes issues of the framing of play as separate from mundane reality, and contrasts play to the playful attitude that erupts suddenly into the mundane. Play is understood as a way of organizing activity, rather than any particular content of activity. Play is implicated in the making of change, and through this to the presence of violence. The aspect of violence is suppressed when play is rationally and neatly framed off from mundane reality, as make-believe and fictive. Studies of cosmology indicate that when play is implicated in the creation of cosmos, its effects are felt throughout the functioning of the cosmos that comes into existence. Otherwise, cosmos is perceived as peripheral and subversive. Finally, game is considered as a variant of play, a metaphor that has enjoyed especial popularity during the twentieth century.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInternational Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences: Second Edition
PublisherElsevier Inc.
Pages214-217
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9780080970875
ISBN (Print)9780080970868
DOIs
StatePublished - 26 Mar 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2001 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Attributes of play
  • Behavior
  • Blay and reality
  • Framing play

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