HUMANITAS BEACON REPRINTS IN HUMANITIES GeneralEdltor Jacob Taubes The Betrayal of the Intellectuals, by Jullen Benda by Introductlonby Herbert Read J. HUIZINGA Between Man and Man, by Martln Buber The Phrlosophy of the Enltghtenment, by Ernst Cassirer Homo LudensA Study of thePlay-Element m Culture, by Johan Hulzmga IN PREPARATION Paths zn Utopa, by Martln Buber Attack UponChrtstendom, by SorenKlerkegaard Soctal Thought zn Amcrrca The Revolt Agarnst Formaltsm, by Morton G Whlte I THE BEACON PRESS BOSTON --. 194 HOMO LUDENS male costume and a tolerable degree of stability in the female. i This is what, upto a point, onewould expect: the codes of decency XI1 and the consequent avoldance of fashlons too loose, or too short, or too low, precluded gross modifications in the basic structure of THE PLAY-ELEMENT IN CONTEMPORARY female attlre: a skirt reachmg to the feet, and a bodlce. Only towards the turn of the 18th century do ladies’ fashions really CIVILIZATION begin to“play”. While towering coiffures sprout up in the ‘ Rococo period, the spirit of Romanticlsm breathes in the auasi- LET us not waste time arguing about what is meant by “con- neghgke, the languishing looks, the streaming hair, the bare arms temporary”. It goes without saying that any time we speak of andthe revelation of ankles and more. Oddlyenough, the has already become an historical past, a past that seems tocrumble dkcolletk was in full swing centuries before bare arms, as we know away at thehinder end the furtherwe recede from it. Phenomena from the fulminations of mediaeval moralists. From the Directoire which a younger generation is constantly relegating to “former period on, women’s fashions stride ahead of men’s both in the days” are, for their elders, part of “our own day”, not merely frequency andthe extent of then- changes. Previous centuries because their elders have a personal recollection of them but had known nothing-unlesswe go back to archaic times-hke because theirculture still participates in them. This different the crinolines of the 1860’s and the bustles that followed. Then, time-sense is not so much dependent on the generation to which with the new century, the current of fashion sets the other way one happens to belong as on the knowledge one has of things old and carries women’s dress back to a simplicity and naturalness and new. A mind historically focussed will embody in its idea of unknown since 1300. what is “modern” and “contemporary” a far larger section of L the past than a mind living in the myopia of the moment. “Con- temporary civilization” in oursense, therefore, goes deep into the 19th century. The question to which we address ourselves is this: To what extent does the civilization we live in still develop in play-form? How far does the play-spirit dominate the lives of those who share that ciwlization? The 19th century, we observed, had lost many of the play-elements so characteristic of former ages. Has this leeway been made up or has it increased? . It might seem at first sight that certain phenomena in modern social life have more than compensated for the loss of play-forms. Sport and athletics, as social functions, have steadily increased in scope and conquered ever freshfields both nationally and internationally. Contests in skill, strength and perseverance have, as we have shown, always occupied an important place in every culture I either in connection with ritual or simply for fun and festivity. Feudal society was only really interested in the tournament; the rest was just popular recreation andnothing more. Now the tournament,with its highly dramatic staging and aristocratic embellishments, can hardly be called a sport. It fulfilledone of I ‘95 I 96 HOMO LUDENS the functions of thetheatre. Only a numerically small upper 1 PLAY-ELEMENT IN CONTEMPORARYCIVILIZATION I97 classtook active part init. This one-sidednessof mediaeval able up to a point, though how far the specifically Anglo-Saxon sporting life was due in large measure to the influence ofthe bent of mind can be deemed an efficient cause is less certain. But Church. The Christian ideal left but little room for the organized it cannot be doubted that the structure of English social life had practice of sport and the cultivation of bodily exercise, except much to do with it Local self-government encouraged the spirlt insofar as the latter contributed to gentle education. Similarly, of association and solidarity. The absence of obligatory mllltary the Renaissance affords falrly numerous examples ofbody- trainmg favoured the occasion for, andthe needof, physical trainlng cultivated for the sake of perfection, but only on the exercise. The peculiar form of education tended to work in the part of individuals, never groups or classes. If anything, the same direction, and finally the geography of the country and the emphasis laid by the Humanists on learningand erudition tended nature of the terraln, on the whole flat and, in the ubiquitous to perpetuate the old under-estimation of the body, llkewise the commons, offering the most perfect playmg-fields that could be moral zeal and severe intellectuality of theRerormation and desired, were of the greatest importance. Thus England became Counter-Reformatlon. The recognition of games and bodily the cradle and focus of modern sporting life. exercises as important cultural values was withheld right up to Ever since the last quarter of the 19th century games, in the the end of the 18th century. guiseof sportJ1 have been taken more and more seriously. The The basic forms of sportwe competition are, of course, constant rules have become increasingly strict and elaborate. Records are through the ages In some the trial of strength and speed is the established at a hlgher, or faster, or longer level than was ever whole essence of the contest, as in running and skating matches, conceivable before. Everybody knows the delightful prints from charlot and horse races, weight-hftlng, swlmming, diving, marks- the first half of the 19th century, showing the cricketers in top- manship, etc Thoughhuman beings have indulged in such hats.Itself. This speaks for )m actlv~tlesslnce the dawn of time, these only take on the character Now, wlth the increasing systematization and regimentation a€ of organized games to a very slight degree. Yet nobody, bearing sport, something of thepure play-quality is inevitably lost.We 1 I in mindthe agonistic prlnclple whlch animates them, would see this very clearly m the official distinction between amateurs I hesitate to call them games in the sense of play-which, as we and professionals (or “gentlemen and players” as used pointedly have seen, can be very serious indeed. There are, however, other to be said). It means thatthe play-group marks out those for 3 forms of contest which develop of their own accord into c‘sportsy’. whom playing is no longer play, ranking them inferior to the true These are the ball-games. players in standing but supelior in capacity. The spirit of the What we are concerned with here 1s the transition from occas- professional is no longer- the true play-spirit; it is lacking in spon- ional amusement to the system of organized clubs and matches. ‘taneityand carelessness. This affkcts the amateur too, who beglns Dutch pictures of the I 7th century show us burghers and peasants to suffer from an inferiority complex. Between them they push intent upon their game of kolf; but, so far as I know, nothing is sport furthe1 and further away from the play-sphere proper until heard of games being organized in clubs or played as matches. it becomes a thing sui genens: neither play nor earnest. In modern It IS obvious that a fixed organization of this klnd will most readily sociallife sport occupies a place alongside and apart from the occur when two groups play against one another. The great ball- cultural process. Thk great-competitions in archaic cultures had games in particular require theexistence of permanent teams, and always formed part of the sacred festivals and were indispensable herein lies the startmg-point of modern sport The process arises as healthand happiness-brmgmg activitles. Thisritual tie has i quite spontaneously inthe meeting of village against village, now been completely severed; sport has become profane, c‘unholyJ’ school against school, one part of a town against the rest, etc. That the process started in 19th-century England is understand- 1 IIt is probably slgnlficant that we no longer speak of “games” but of “s ort”. Our author may not have been sufficiently famillar wlth the development o!“sport” In ‘A happy varintlon of the natatorlal contest IS found in BcowuCI; where the a1m is the last ten or twenty years, here and rn America, to stress the all-mportmt poirlt to hold your opponent under water untll he IS drowned. that sporthas become a busmess, or, to put it bluntly, a commerclalracket. Tram *Note G. K Chesterton’s dictum If a thmg is worth dolng at all It IS worth doing Ibadly1 Trans. 198 HOMO LUDENS PLAY-ELEMENT IN CONTEMPORARY CIVILIZATION 199 times,some even in primitive society, which attached great The attemptto assess the play-content inthe confuslon of importance to them largely on account of their chanceful charac- modern life is bound to lead us to contradictory conclusions. In ter. Whether they aregames of chance or skill they all contain an the case of sport we have an activity nominally known as play but element ofseriousness. The merry play-mood has little scope raised to such a pitch of technlcal organization and scientific here, particularly where chance is at a mlnlmum as in chess, thoroughness that the realplay-spirit is threatened with extinction.