ABSTRACT

Games are one kind of play, just as acting is another. Almost any kind of play is based on make-belief, that is, the situation which defines it is contrived and does not of itself relate to the problems of day-to-day living. Almost by definition it is an escape from these problems, and if it has a social purpose, this is what best characterises it. The playing of children is pre-eminently of this kind: it is essentially that part of their life which they are free to live in their own way, to create their own world in opposition to that in which, by force of circumstance, they must grow up. This shows that play is defined also by context, which is almost certain to have both a spatial and a temporal dimension. The wood at the edge of the village, and the hour after school, provide the context for hide and seek,1 and many other forms of play.