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a sacramental function one can be sure, not play, but an institution is
involved.’11
Caillois also notes that missing from Huizinga’s definition of play are
games of chance played for money and that a distinction need be made where
the definition of play affirms or implies the absence of economic interest.
Caillois classifies play into 4 types:
Agon: contest of skill (chess, football, golf)
Alea: games of fate/ chance and requiring luck to win (cards,
roulette, dice)
Mime: adopting a different identity (charade)
Ilinx: contains the pursuit of vertigo or loss of consciousness
(dancing, acrobatics, psychotropic drugs)
type
A G O N
competition
A L E A
chance
MIM ICRY
sim ulation
ILINX
vertigo
cu ltu ral forms
found at the
m argins o f the
social order
sports
lotteries
casinos
hippodrom es
pari-m u tuels
m ass
in stitutio nal
forms
in teg rated
into social life
econom ic
com petition
lim its
corruption
violence
w ill to po w er
com petitive
exam inations
trickery
sp eculation on
stock m arket
su perstition
astrology
feng shui
carnival
theatre
cinem a
hero-w orship
uniform s
alienation
cerem onial
etiquette
split
personality
m ountain clim b
skiing
tightrope walk
speed
professions
requiring
co ntrol o f
vertigo
alcoholism
drugs
roger caillois 1958
Figure 1