The Nature of Play : Great Apes and Humans / Edited by Anthony D
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THE NATURE OF PLAY The Nature of Play GREAT APES AND HUMANS Edited by ANTHONY D. PELLEGRINI PETER K. SMITH THE GUILFORD PRESS New York London © 2005 The Guilford Press A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc. 72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012 www.guilford.com All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher. Printed in the United States of America This book is printed on acid-free paper. Last digit is print number:987654321 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The nature of play : great apes and humans / edited by Anthony D. Pellegrini, Peter K. Smith. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-59385-117-0 (hardcover) 1. Play—Psychological aspects. 2. Play behavior in animals. 3. Psychology, Comparative. I. Pellegrini, Anthony D. II. Smith, Peter K. BF717.N38 2004 156.′5—dc22 2004020577 About the Editors Anthony D. Pellegrini, PhD, is Professor of Psychological Foundations of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. His primary interest is in the development of play and dominance. He also has research interests in methodological issues in the general area of human development, with specific interest in direct observations. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Spencer Foundation, and the W. T. Grant Foundation. Dr. Pellegrini is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and has been awarded a Fellowship from the British Psychological Society. Peter K. Smith, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Head of the Unit for School and Family Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London. His research interests are in social development, play,bullying in school, and evolutionary theory.Dr. Smith is coauthor of Understanding Children’s Devel- opment (4th ed.; Blackwell, 2003) and coeditor of The Nature of School Bullying (Routledge, 1999) and the Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Social Development (Blackwell, 2002). He has written widely on children’s play, particularly on pretend play training and rough-and-tumble play. Dr. Smith is also a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. v Contributors Patrick Bateson, PhD, Department of Zoology, Kings College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom John Bock, PhD, Department of Anthropology, California State University, Fullerton, California Vera Silvia Raad Bussab, PhD, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of São Paolo, São Paolo, Brazil Douglas P. Fry, PhD, Department of Social Sciences, Abo Akademi University, Vaasa, Finland, and Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona Juan-Carlos Gómez, PhD, School of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, United Kingdom Yumi Gosso, MS, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of São Paolo, São Paolo, Brazil Kathy Gustafson, MS, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota Kerrie P. Lewis, PhD, Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri Beatriz Martín-Andrade, MS, School of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, United Kingdom William C. McGrew, PhD, Departments of Anthropology and Sociology and Gerontology, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio Maria de Lima Salum e Morais, MS, São Paolo State Health Department, São Paolo, Brazil vii viii Contributors Emma Otta, PhD, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of São Paolo, Sao Paolo, Brazil Anthony D. Pellegrini, PhD, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota Jacklyn K. Ramsey, BA, Department of Anthropology, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio Fernando José Leite Ribeiro, PhD, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of São Paolo, São Paolo, Brazil Peter K. Smith, PhD, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, University of London, London, United Kingdom Contents PART I BACKGROUND AND THEORY 1. Play in Great Apes and Humans 3 Anthony D. Pellegrini and Peter K. Smith 2. The Role of Play in the Evolution of Great Apes and Humans 13 Patrick Bateson PART II SOCIAL PLAY 3. Social Play in the Great Apes 27 Kerrie P.Lewis 4. Rough-and-Tumble Social Play in Humans 54 Douglas P.Fry PART III OBJECT PLAY 5. Object Play in Great Apes: Studies in Nature and Captivity 89 Jacklyn K. Ramsey and William C. McGrew 6. Boys’ and Girls’ Uses of Objects for Exploration, Play, and Tools 113 in Early Childhood Anthony D. Pellegrini and Kathy Gustafson ix x Contents PART IV FANTASY 7. Fantasy Play In Apes 139 Juan-Carlos Gómez and Beatriz Martín-Andrade 8. Social and Pretend Play in Children 173 Peter K. Smith PART V HUNTER-GATHERERS AND PASTORAL PEOPLES 9. Play in Hunter-Gatherer Society 213 Yumi Gosso, Emma Otta, Maria de Lima Salum e Morais, Fernando José Leite Ribeiro, and Vera Silvia Raad Bussab 10. Farming, Foraging, and Children’s Play 254 in the Okavango Delta, Botswana John Bock PART VI CONCLUSION 11. Play in Great Apes and Humans: Reflections on Continuities 285 and Discontinuities Peter K. Smith and Anthony D. Pellegrini Index 299 THE NATURE OF PLAY PART I BACKGROUND AND THEORY CHAPTER 1 Play in Great Apes and Humans ANTHONY D. PELLEGRINI AND PETER K. SMITH Over the past few years a number of scholars has examined human devel- opment in its larger evolutionary context (e.g., Archer, 1992; Bateson & Martin, 1999; Bjorklund & Pellegrini, 2002; Campbell, 2002; Laland & Brown, 2002). This current interest in the role of evolutionary theory in human development is, in some ways, an interesting return to the origins of developmental psychology as a separate branch of the field (Bjorklund & Pellegrini, 2002; Pellegrini, 2004). HISTORICAL CONTINUITY G. Stanley Hall (1904, 1916), called by many (e.g., Cairns, 1983) the father of child and developmental psychology in the United States, used Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection to formulate a theory of human development. Hall is remembered for his emphasis of the stage-like progres- sion of human development. For Hall, ontogenetic stages reenacted the phylogenetic history of the species. In this vein he is also remembered for the phrase “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny,” meaning that development within a species repeats the evolutionary history of the species. For example, the stages of child development were said to repeat the history of Homo sa- piens. Some of Hall’s famous examples include boys’ tree climbing as a reca- 3 4 BACKGROUND AND THEORY pitulation of our primate past, and boys’ play fighting (then it took the form of “cowboys and Indians”) as a reenactment of our hunter-gatherer past. Of course, the accuracy of the notion that ontogeny repeats phylogeny is questionable. Specifically, and without going into detail (see Hinde, 1983 for extended discussion), it is more likely that ontogenetic development in- fluences phylogeny, as Bateson (Chapter 2, this volume) suggests. The course of individual development, for example, the age of sexual maturity, influences the development of the species. We should not, however, be too hasty and chuckle too visibly at the apparent foolishness of Hall’s claim. Most theories are destined not to be supported. Newton’s theory was displaced by Einstein’s (Clark, 1971), but this does not discredit the historical importance of Newton for the physics of his day. Probably the most enduring aspect of Hall’s theory,and his importance for this volume, was his emphasis on the stages of human development and the corresponding importance he placed on the role of play during child- hood. For Hall play was integral to childhood; it was a period during which children should be allowed unfettered time to explore and play. He warned against the use of “unnatural” and “artificial” educational and pedagogical regimens, stating that they interfered with the natural unfolding of chil- dren’s developmental processes (Cairns, 1983, p. 52). Play, for Hall, meant children choosing an activity and enacting it on their own terms. In this re- gard play during childhood was stressed as a way in which children ex- pressed their phylogenetic history. Perhaps more interesting was Hall’s view that play was not something that prepared individuals for adulthood. Unlike most of his contemporaries, such as Groos (1898, 1901) and later Piaget (1962) and Vygotsky (1967), Hall considered play important to childhood, not as practice for adulthood. Indeed, this view is current among many developmental psychologists (e.g., Bjorklund & Pellegrini, 2002; Pellegrini & Smith, 1998) and evolutionary biologists (Bateson, 1981; Chapter 2, this volume)! Hall’s work emphasized the notions of the juvenile period as a distinc- tive “stage” of human development. Correspondingly, play was seen as the way in which juveniles come to know their world. Through play, juveniles interact with their physical and social worlds and “construct” their mental worlds. The role of play in development has since been discussed by child psychologists (Pellegrini, 2003; Power, 2000; Smith, 1982), comparative psy- chologists (Harlow, 1962; Pellis & Pellis, 1998), and ethologists (Bateson, 1981; Bateson & Martin, 1999; Burghardt, 2004). Thus, it is a natural candi- date for cross-species comparison. Play in Great Apes and Humans 5 Play manifests itself behaviorally in similar ways across many mamma- lian species