Laurence Goldman - Childs play : myth, mimesis and make-believe

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Childs Play

EXPLORATIONS IN ANTHROPOLOGY

A University College London Series

Series Editors: Barbara Bender, John Gledhill and Bruce Kapferer

First published 1998 by Berg Publishers

Published 2020 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

L. R. Goldman 1998

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Typeset by JS Typesetting, Wellingborough, Northants.

ISBN13: 978-1-8597-3913-6 (hbk)

ISBN13: 978-1-8597-3918-1 (pbk)

For Colleen, Leon and Oscar

Extracts from a Huli (Papua New Guinea) sung narrative (bi te) which articulates the stereotypes of female beauty (Bebogo Wane Pandime) and male beauty (Iba Mulu Lunguya) respectively. The reiterated refrain of like you cant imagine - a phrase that might well have served as an alternative title to this book - is echoed by Huli children in their make-believe play.

Narrator: Giame-Yaluba 1993

Huli agali mbira layago laro

There was one man there, I am saying

agali igini ibu one mende laya laro

This mans son had a wife, I am saying

ibu waneore mabura mabuage tebone laya laro

His young daughter was a third person there, I am saying

mabuage ogodege agali wane la tago tago o nabi laya laro

This young girl was not like any mans daughter, I am saying

kewa tangi urume ogoalebe toba hea laya laro

With string hats like you cant imagine, I am saying

hali Tami payada urume ogoalebe toba hea laya laro

With arm-bone bracelets like you cant imagine, I am saying

limale mabu urume pugu lalu togo lea laro

With feathered cassowary claws as nose plugs, I am saying

kewa tangi pugu pugu lea laya laro

Wearing these string hats, I am saying

baya wane purugu laya laro

This wonderful girl who was so good as to dazzle and confuse, I am saying

uyuguria handa tagi halu heria

While they were looking outside

gulu babu gulu barabu gulu pilipe pili logobe o lama igiri mbira ibiya

One boy came blowing these pan pipes

igiri ibiyaria ai ibiyabe toba hayagola

As the boy came she didnt know who was coming

wali biago ibu gi howa handalu heria igiri ale la tago tago howa nabi layago

When she saw him she was frightened because this boy was not like other boys

unduni hundu mandaru ogobialebe toba hea layago

With a wig coiffure like you cant imagine

ulu babu gulu barabu gulu ogoalebe toba hea layago

With cordyline leaves like you cant imagine

honagaga lagoli uru ogoalebe toba hea laya

With brown cassowary feathers fixed on his wig like a kneecap on a knee, such as you cant imagine

pulu yabe kindiru ogoalebe toba hea laya

With a flapping bag decoration like you cant imagine

geni ge haleru ogoalebe toba hea laya

With leg bands on the legs like you cant imagine

pagabua mano gu gau learu ogoalebe toba hea laya

With the apron ends making sounds like that made by pigs when moving, like you cant imagine

gelabo mandibu gugu ndibu learu ogoalebe toba hea laya

With the apron sitting tightly on each thigh like you cant imagine

agali igini ale tago tago nabi ibiniya laya

A person like this mans son couldnt be mentioned in the same breath as others, and he came

agali igini handaya howa nabiya laya

It wasnt possible even to look at this mans son

Iba Mulu Lungiya agali igini ndo

Iba Mulu Lungiya was not like any mans son

walirume bi labe naheaya

It wasnt possible even for women to talk to him

igiri hegene aube toba hea

This was a clever man like you cant imagine

amu daramabi biagoria dugu yalu tagira ibiyagola igiri labona agali iginila paliaba loa nabi nahea

When he came out of the red lake he was an utterly amazing man such that you couldnt tell another person to go and sleep with him

Contents

H.B. Schwartzman

1. vi
2. vii
3. viii

Guide

Anthropologists have finally begun to embrace the topics of play, creativity and improvisation in social life (see Lavie, Narayan and Rosaldo 1993). Thanks in part to researchers with diverse perspectives such as Roy Wagner, Victor Turner and Pierre Bourdieu, adults have become active agents who constitute, manipulate, interpret and invent culture. No such luck for children - at least not in anthropology. For the most part the importance of play, invention and imagination has been masked by mechanistic theories of socialization which continue to characterize this activity as imitation of and preparation for adult life. In anthropology the attitude remains one of mild amusement and only occasional study of childrens efforts to play society.

Laurence Goldman sets out to unmask this approach in Childs Play by arguing against approaches that treat play as an epiphenomenon and suggesting that the issues of realism and verisimilitude, referentiality and illusion, fact and fiction that one encounters in childrens pretence make the case for privileging spontaneous play as a focus for attention [in anthropology] both compelling and timely (p. xvi). In other words it is time, finally, to see what can be learned from an in-depth study of childrens pretence, and, in particular, how it is socially mediated and linguistically achieved (p. 3). It turns out that we can learn a lot about a range of issues of concern to both anthropologists and psychologists, issues such as the acquisition of language, the assimilation of metaphor, the development of abstract thought, relationships between language and identity and understanding how children, as well as adults, make narrative sense of the world.

I have been waiting a long time for anthropologists to appreciate the value of producing richly detailed and thick ethnographies of childrens play. Recent exceptions to what has been a drought of studies include Goodwins He-Said-She-Said (1990) and Laneys Playing on the Mother-Ground (1996), but most anthropologists continue to neglect this topic. Goldmans achievement is to keep his focus on make-believe for its own sake and this means that his study is packed (brimming) with ideas about ways to conceptualize as well as to study this topic. Even though his main concern is Hull (Papua New Guinea) childrens make-believe, researchers concerned with other places, and even other issues, will learn a great deal from this account.

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