Transcript culture and gender in play

CULTURE AND GENDER IN PLAY
FINDINGS ABOUT PLAY
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Play serves as common features of children’s lives, it can be found in all
themes of culture. Consequently, through play, we experience our unique
culture of socialization.
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Conditions of children’s play vary a great deal, depending in the
1. Value/Beliefs. Respective to culture, we internalize gender and role distinctions.
Consequently, girls may play less in certain cultures.
2. Practices. Within certain cultures, children experience ritualistic play that serves to
prepare them for particular roles in society.
• Kids in Spain practice being a Matador while another practices the role of the bull.
• African and Hawaiian cultures, children practice ritualistic dances initially through play.
3. Institutions. Organized sports in America; Rites of passage in other cultures.
4. Tools that surround them. Rural children skip rocks on lakes and ponds.
THE ROOTS OF CULTURAL PLAY
RESEARCH
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HELEN SCHWARTZMAN
First to integrate research on children’s play from an anthropological
perspective.
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“Transformation: The Anthropology of children’s play”- serves as
cornerstone for research culture and children’s play.
1.
Situates play in context of culture. Through play, children are internalizing and expressing
cultural values. Play and cultural expression may be the glue to role identification.
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Distinguishes between the study of play in generals from the study of children’s play in particular.
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Explored ideologies and metaphor that have shaped cultural perspectives on play.
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Identifies predominant theoretical views that give researcher the question that they attempt to
answer with their research.
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Presents an argument and data for considering children's play as a significant text that related to
its cultural context.
SCHWARTZMAN’S METAPHORS OF
PLAY
1.
Copycat, Monkey. Allows children to practice things they
see adults doing themselves when they grow up.
2.
Personality trainee. Children are acquiring a sense of
how to act and who they are as actors in their culture.
3.
Critics. Through play, children are commenting on their
own lives and what they see around. They are forming
bonds with playmates that allows children to cope with the
perceives injustice of society.
GAME DIFFUSION
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Can we see a progression of play like
behaviors between cultures?
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Do superior cultures transfer (play)
experiences to less advanced cultures?
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Are there any totally indigenous and
culturally based play customs?
Play and Universality
a) Certain forms of play. (e.g., chase, ball
and imitative games)
b) How they appear within their culture.
(e.g., among boys or girls, when chores
are done, with or without adults)
PLAY FUNCTIONS
• Play has a developmental influence on children.
• Play is associated with socialization into their societies,
including the acquisition of gender roles, values and
understanding about social institution.
• Play is a functional set of activities that take the children
from childhood and prepare them for what they will do later.
• Allow children to acquire skills and values.
• Give children an opportunity to practice adult roles and for
adults to teach children about those roles.
• Through games children learn how to play (rules) as well as
showing sense which is necessary for survival.
PROJECTING PERSONALITY
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Children’s play is credited as the setting where nature and
nurture creates a resulting socialized community member
and where psychological imperatives meet each culture’s
socializing influences.
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Play not only functions to shape the child within culture,
but also, play functions to express who a child is as an
individual.
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Play is an expression of child’s way of dealing with their
experiences growing up in their family and society as well
as how play allows them to grow.
COMMUNICATION
• A necessary and unique feature of pretend play is
the communication. Many theorist purport that
symbolic rationale (play frame) is essential towards
promoting more advanced play.
• The integration of symbolic rationale and play
function is an integral step towards greater social
and cognitive functioning.
• The skill of Decontextualizing experiences are
needed, so one can better take roles, think about
experiences while not in that experience, and
correctly interpret other’s signals (i.e., Various Role Play,
Animalistic Play, Space Monsters).
DEFINATIONS OF PLAY
• Play can be seen as “text in context” and
“context in text.” The individual child
responds to culture and culture responds to
the individual child. Symbiosis.
• Play not only reflects experiences but also
shapes experiences.
SLAUGHTER & DOMBROWSKI—
Diversity and Play
• The cultural exchange of play can be seen from two standpoints:
– Continuous (Cultural influence has remained in place for generations)
– Discontinuous (Migration influences people through encountering multiple
cultures.
• Families carry belief and traditions with them when they move, but in a
new setting they may have different meaning.
• Children’s social and pretend play appears to be biologically based,
sustained as an evolutionary contribution to human psychological growth
and development but cultural transmission regulates the expression of
this play.
CULTURAL INFLUENCE ON PLAY
1)
FAMILY INFLUENCE ON PLAY
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Play is often described in terms of it’s socialization functions.
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By means of play, society shapes children to become
participants in the larger groups.
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Play in certain forms, contributes to meaningful social
interactions that become adaptive for individual in their social
groups.
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Parental influence on play varies from culture to culture.
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According to Haight, parents have indirect influence on
children’s play by means of the setting that they arrange for
play.
2.
DIFFERENCES IN GROUP PLAY
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Role of peers can vary a great deal, depending on culture.
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Peer interactions within families, neighborhood, or classroom
have distinctive outcomes as a function of culture.
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Culturally unique customs appears in children’s dramatic play
as do desired social roles.
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Culture may contribute to play by providing a set of roles
(particularly gender-linked roles) that can be played during
pretend play.
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In some culture play is not a matter of personal expression;
players must recognize the interest of everyone in the
community.
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Culture adapts to their physical settings and play activities
reflects those cultures and settings.
3. GENDER AND PLAY
– Gender segregation during play early in life is a
common Western observation, as are different
styles of play for boys and girls.
– Culture vary in the degree to which traditional
gender roles are allowed expression by means
of play.