Re: play

From: Ana Marjanovic Shane (anashane@speakeasy.net)
Date: Sun Feb 03 2002 - 19:40:51 PST


Mike,

How can I get Ricardo's and Keith's papers??

Your questions are very important to me. I think of play as one of the most
important activities in the development of "higher mental functions" or,
let's call them cognitive processes and development of will (self
regulation). However, I don't think that play as a phenomenon can be or
should be reduced only to the pretend play. It is difficult to define play
and I don't think that we have a good CHAT definition which would include
all the elusive aspects of play. For me, play is one of the keys in
unlocking the relationships between the individual and social, development
of signs into symbols (linguistic development in general) and of cognitive
development.

I don't know why your conclusions were criticized as un-Vygotskian. It
seems to me that Vygotskian approach would question using universal
assessment tools to measure cognitive processes across different cultures
and different historical "spots" in the development of social groups and
cultures.

Ana

(PS. Thank you and Vera, Anna Stetsenko and Peter for the historical
details you related! It's just fascinating to hear that)

At 10:48 AM 2/3/2002 -0800, you wrote:

>Dear Ricardo-- I have now read your paper on play and am hoping to
>download and read Keith's as well. I have a kind of "meta" question
>about the presumed history of play a la elkonin.
>
>This quesetion is motivated by data on cross-cultural differences in
>children's play, in particular, the work of Susan Gaskins such as the
>article in Artin Goncu's recent collection on play and activity. Gaskin
>and others report what appears to be very limited pretend play, and
>especially, little projected pretend play in rural, general non-literate
>social groups.
>
>When such play occurs, it occurs using everyday adult activities as the
>model.
>
>Such play has been reported in the ethnographic literature on hunter
>gatherers as well as rural agriculturalists with relatively simple level
>of material culture.
>
>This play is very different from play which turns a stick into a rocket
>and includes fantastic characters from fiction and film, such as reported
>by Vivian Paley.
>
>Would these differences, in your mind, lead to reduced complexity of
>later thought processes in adults, or slower acquisition of that complexity?
>
>By some measures, the Mayan peasant with whom Susan has worked (for example)
>do not develop mentally past middle childhood or even early childhood
>level UNLESS they attend school. I have been very critical of concluding
>that the measures used to assess cognitive development in such work are
>generally valid measure of cognitive development. Toomela, whom you quote,
>has criticized my conclusion as un-Vygotskian.
>
>How do you view this issue? Keith? Others?
>mike



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