Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-element in CultureA happier age than ours once made bold to call our species by the name of Homo Sapiens. In the course of time we have come to realize that we are not so reasonable after all as the Eighteenth Century, with its worship of reason and naive optimism, thought us; hence modern fashion inclines to designate our species as Homo Faber: Man the Maker. But though faber may not be quite so dubious as sapiens it is, as a name specific of the human being, even less appropriate, seeing that many animals too are makers. There is a third function, however, applicable to both human and animal life, and just as important as reasoning and making-namely, playing. it seems to me that next to Homo Faber, and perhaps on the same level as Homo Sapiens, Homo Ludens, Man the Player, deserves a place in our nomenclature. " - from the Foreward, by Johan Huizinga |
Contents
NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF PLAY AS A CULTURAL | 1 |
THE PLAYCONCEPT AS EXPRESSED IN LANGUAGE | 28 |
PLAY AND CONTEST AS CIVILIZING FUNCTIONS | 46 |
Copyright | |
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18th century aesthetic agon agonistic Alain de Lille ancient animal answer archaic culture Aristotle battle ceremonial characteristics of play Chinese civilization combat common competition conception connection contest dancing divine duel Dutch earnest element English Euthydemos expression fact feast festival forms of play function German Germanic languages Greek Gylfaginning hence honour human idea ideal instance judgement judicial duel justice King koani Langobards languages lawsuit literary literature magic Mahābhārata means mediaeval mind modern myth Nāgasena nature noble Old Frisian Old Norse origin pantun performance personification philosophy plastic Plato play and seriousness play-character play-concept play-element play-factor play-forms play-function play-quality play-sphere play-spirit player playful poetic poetry potlatch primitive purely question religion religious riddle ritual Rococo Roman rules savage semantic sense serious significance Skáldskaparmál social society songs sophist sphere spirit sport theme thing tion tribe virtue Werner Jaeger whole winning wisdom word play παιδιά