Imagining identities: Mimetic constructions in Huli child fantasy play

Author(s): Smith, C.

Journal/Book: J Roy Anthropol Inst. 1998; 4: 50 Fitzroy Street, London W1P 5HS, England. Royal Anthropological Inst. 207-234.

Abstract: This article presents an ethnographic analysis of object and role transformations in the social pretend play of Hull (Papua New Guinea) children. It focuses on how these child actors enact their understandings of the relation between language, gender and identity, and the conversational means by which they monitor authenticity in role reproduction, assignation and appropriation. From an examination of the levels of discontinuity in findings for Western and non-Western children, make-believe play emerges as an important window into child perspectives on the nature and meaning of roles in a post-colonial context.

Note: Article Goldman L, Univ Queensland, Dept Anthropol & Sociol, St Lucia, Qld 4072, AUSTRALIA

Keyword(s): SOCIAL PRETEND PLAY; MIND

Zurück | Weiter