[Xmca-l] Re: Interesting "post-apocalyptic" playground

[Peter Smagorinsky]

Perhaps the attached piece is offbase, but it did occur to me while reading Greg's post....Johnny Clegg is a S. African musician (currently touring the US and highly recommended) who has been incredibly courageous in fighting injustice, with a career in a banned mixed-race band during apartheid and continuing efforts to make the world more equitable.

But he was also an anthropologist who wrote about Zulu stick fighting, a martial "game" that provides the basis for the Zulu dance that is part of his stage show. So here, fighting is simultaneously play that serves as the foundation for art, all within a genre grounded in preparation for battle.

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Greg Thompson
Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2014 12:01 PM
To: xmca-l@ucsd.edu
Subject: [Xmca-l] Interesting "post-apocalyptic" playground

I thought that this was a fascinating way of taking play beyond what we have imagined - allowing kids to play with fire, sharp sticks, and other "dangerous" objects:

http://transom.org/2013/of-kith-and-kin/

The link is about the making of a video about this playground, but there are great images and videos that describe the playground.

Seems fascinating, no?

What do you think? Does play need to be more structured than this? How does this fit with the CHAT view of play?

-greg

--
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
883 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: CleggEthnoDance.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 1629703 bytes
Desc: CleggEthnoDance.pdf
Url : https://mailman.ucsd.edu/mailman/private/xmca-l/attachments/20140426/250c94d3/attachment-0001.pdf