Scommettiamo che è un gioco?

Is commonplace to think of play/game as the opposite of work or as activities applying only to children. This two concepts encompass however a complex set of phenomena. We speak about Olympic Games, game laws, computer games, games of chance; we learn to play chess, the piano or the races; and we have a high regard for people who are able to play on words. Beyond its different manifestations, what is the essence of play/game? This is the purpose of Roberte Hamayon’s latest work, Jouer. Internationally renowned for her studies of Shamanism in Mongolian and Siberian area, Hamayon proposes an interesting perspective on what she prefers to call “jouer” (playing/gaming) and not “jeu” (play/game). Following Winnicott and Bateson, the French anthropologist shows that playing is a method of action, a way to do things while doing something else. A central focus in her reflexion is the idea of universality of playing which brings her to identify the main dimensions involved in all forms of play: body movement, imitation, interaction, dramatization, chance, strategy and so forth.