Play in Childhood: An Anthropological Perspective

This paper offers a critical assessment and some illustrations of an anthropological approach to the study of children's play. It argues that universal definitions of play are problematic and that therefore attention should be paid to the local definitions of play operative in any culture. This includes, importantly, the meanings that children attribute to and generate through their play. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork the paper illustrates just one aspect of children's play: the different ways in which play facilitates power relations to be articulated, upheld, and challenged. In this sense play is revealed to be far from a frivolous activity. Instead, it is a serious medium through which children conduct their social affairs.

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Mapping children’s play and violence in Kashmir

Childhood ◽

10.1177/0907568220923006 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 354-368

Author(s):

Aatina Nasir Malik

Keyword(s):

Political Violence ◽

Game Playing ◽

Children's Play ◽

Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽

The Everyday ◽

Children’S Play ◽

Everyday Reality

In Kashmir, the entrenchment of political violence in the everyday has marked a shift from understanding Kashmiris as passive receivers of violence to agentic beings; however, much attention has not been paid to the experiences of children. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in one of the downtown neighbourhoods in Srinagar, this article would look at the everyday of children by focusing on their game playing. Analysing two games, that is, Military-Mujahid and PUBG (Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds), the article highlights how playing blurs the lines between spectacular and everyday, and actual and virtual/imaginary, establishing itself as a part of children’s everyday reality.

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Introduction

Child Psychology and Psychiatry Review ◽

10.1017/s1360641798001683 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 98-98

Author(s):

Stephen Scott

Keyword(s):

Therapeutic Relationship ◽

Developmental Psychology ◽

Drama Therapy ◽

Years Of Experience ◽

Personal View ◽

Analytic Thinking ◽

Anthropological Perspective ◽

Children's Play ◽

Children’S Play ◽

Ways Of Thinking

In the first part of the Forum on Play, in Volume 3, Number 2, an overview of the functions of play was provided by David Pellegrini and Peter Smith, and the importance of play in the school playground was emphasised by Peter Blatchford.In this, the second part of our forum, Anne Alvarez and Asha Phillips start us off with a masterly exposition of the importance of play in a clinical therapeutic relationship. They show how analytic thinking about play has developed, and add in a wider understanding from developmental psychology. They give vivid examples of what can happen during therapeutic sessions, and propose that if a secure relationship can be established, the child will then be safe to explore alternative ways of feeling and being, free of fear.Allison James then brings us an anthropological perspective on play. With examples, she develops the argument that children's play is not merely a re-enactment of adult values and rules. Rather, successful play with other children is a finely tuned ‘act’ that requires sensitive attunement in order to follow the niceties of the rules and meanings that govern situations. These are complex and differ according to the context the child is in, but are specific to the child's own world and not merely generated by adults.Finally, Peter Slade offers us a uniquely personal view of how he has used play in drama therapy with children. Reading it enables us to glimpse ways of thinking spanning his 50 years of experience.To give a practitioner's perspective, we invited Ann Cattanach to comment on the first two reviews in the forum and Margaret Hunter to comment on the three reviews in this issue. However, if any of these reviews or commentaries sparks off opinions, reminiscences, or experiences, please write to the Editors, so they can be shared with the readership.

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