Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 117

Perspectives on Gaieration X

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aspirations.
The spontaneous child-structured play of boys
approximately 7 to 12 years of age living in the Los Angeles area was
observed in the 1980's.

Flay in Human Culture
In Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element of Culture,

Huizinga discussed "play as a distinct and highly important factor in
the world's life and doings. For many years the conviction has grown
upon me that civilization arises and unfolds in and as play"
(Foreword to the 1960 printing). Play is a significant function,
"which transcends the immediate needs of life and imparts meaning
to the action" (1960, 1). Play involves intensity and absorption,
tension, mirth and fun; "the fun of playing, resists all analysis, all
logical interpretation" (ibid., 3). Play is a social construction (p. 4), a
voluntary activity (p. 7), done at leisure (p. 8). Play is freedom and it
is not "ordinary" or "real" life, but pretending.
The interrelationship of play activities and culture was
emphasized in Roberts, Arth, and Bush's 1959 "Games in Culture,"
and elaborated in Sutton-Smith's Toys as Culture (1986). Roberts and
Sutton-Smith's (1962) "Child Training and Game Involvement"
distinguished three game types. Games involving physical contests
occurred particularly in the more egalitarian societies, training young
boys in physical skills and independence. Games of chance were more
common in socio-culturally and technologically complex cultures,
especially "in the presence of environmental, individual, and social
uncertainty" (ibid., 434). Games of strategy were especially
prevalent in highly complex and socially stratified cultures. Later
Sutton-Smith (1972) argued that cultures could be divided into two
types: ascriptive game cultures manifested hierarchical play;
whereas achievement game cultures focused less on ritual, form alize
hierarchies and less on physical aggression. This last distinction has
particular significance when comparing the popularity of various
coexisting games or forms of play in Los Angeles.
In Toys and Games of Children of the World, Chanan and
Francis (1984, 13) state that "in each culture the sayings that
accompany the game tell of what is safe and what is harmful, of
what is permitted and what is forbidden." Play is intimately
involved with religion, social life, and child-rearing practices. Toys