Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This innovative book finally takes seriously the need for anthropologists to produce in-depth ethnographies of children's play. In examining the subject from a cross-cultural perspective, the author argues that our understanding of the way children transform their environment to create make-believe is enhanced by viewing their creations as oral poetry. The result is a richly detailed 'thick description' of how pretence is socially mediated and linguistically constructed, how children make sense of their own play, how play relates to other imaginative genres in Huli life, and the relationship between play and cosmology. Informed by theoretical approaches in the anthropology of play, developmental and child psychology, philosophy and phenomenology and drawing on ethnographic data from Melanesia, the book analyzes the sources for imitation, the kinds of identities and roles emulated, and the structure of collaborative make-believe talk to reveal the complex way in which children invoke their experiences of the world and re-invent them as types of virtual reality. Particular importance is placed on how the figures of the ogre and trickster are articulated. The author demonstrates that while the concept of 'imagination' has been the cornerstone of Western intellectual traditions from Plato to Postmodernism, models of child fantasy play have always intruded into such theorizing because of children's unique capacity to throw into relief our understanding of the relationship between representation and reality.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Explorations in Anthropology A University College London Series (p. ii)
• Foreword (p. xi)
• Bibliography (p. xiii)
• Preface (p. xv)
• Transcription Conventions (p. xix)
• Abbreviations (p. xx)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• Chapter 1 Naming and Gaming (p. 48)
• Chapter 2 Pretend Play (p. 100)
• Introduction (p. 100)
• Conclusions (p. 142)
• Introduction (p. 145)
• Chapter 3 Changing Roles (p. 145)
• Conclusion (p. 172)
• Introduction (p. 174)
• Chapter 4 the Ogre: a Melanesian Cyclop (p. 174)
• Introduction (p. 228)
• Chapter 5 the Trickster: a Melanesian Enantiomorph (p. 228)
• Afterword (p. 258)
• Appendix 1 (p. 262)
• Appendix 2 (p. 273)
• Bibliography (p. 276)
• Index (p. 295)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

At one time anthropologists went into the field and studied the "important" aspects of a culture. Generally speaking, this meant they studied men. With a few exceptions (Margaret Mead comes to mind) that was pretty much how things were done until, a generation or two ago, anthropologists discovered women. Now Goldman wants to study children, not in the classical way, which was essentially to study how children became adults in a specific culture, but instead as children, playing. Goldman's culture, the Huli, is ripe for study, and the analysis offered is excellent. By using elements of discourse linguistics Goldman is able to produce a work of surprising insight and depth. The analysis of "baby-talk," for example, produces a surprisingly detailed insight into Huli psychology. It is, however, the use of discourse analytical techniques that makes Child's Play a difficult read for those not practiced in that area. This work probably remains too complex for undergraduates, but graduate students and professionals in anthropology, English, education (especially cross-cultural), and psychology will find it useful and insightful. The reader should be prepared, however, for the rather traditional "English" presentation, meaning that the book willingly sacrifices a personal approach to its subject in an attempt to assert its authority. Still, highly enjoyable. M. Kapell; Wayne State University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Laurence R. Goldman University of Queensland