DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 285 643 PS 016 584

AUTHOR Ivic, Ivan, Ed.; Marjanovic, Aleksandra, Ed.TITLE. Traditional Games and Children of Today.

Belgrade-OMEP Traditional Games Project.INSTITUTION Organisation Mondiale Pour 1'Education Prescolaire,

Warsaw (Poland).PUB DATE 86NOTE 149p.; This publication is a result of the Conference

on the Belgrade-OMEP Traditional Games Project(Belgrade, Yugoslavia, October 9-11, 1985). Publishedin collaboration with Yugoslav National Committee ofOMEP and the Institute of Psychology, University ofBelgrade.

PUB TYPE Reports - Research/Technical (143) -- Collected Works- Conference Proceedings (021)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC06 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS *Childrens Games; Ethnology; *Folk Culture; Foreign

Countries; International Programs; Kindergarten;*Play; *Research Design; Research Methodology;Research Projects; Theories

IDENTIFIERS Belgium; Finland; Japan

ABSTRACTCollected in this volume are preliminary materials

related to the Belgrade-OMEP Project whose purpose is to make arecord of those traditional children's games which are a part of the

-folk culture of various countries. The purpose of this publication istwo-fold: (1) to serve as a handbook for the present collaborators onthe Project in their research work; and (2) to inform and attract thegreatest possible number of potential participants to the Project.The volume contains 14 individually authored papers which aregenerally brief. The papers focus on (1) the fundamentals of theproject; (2) the theoretical and methodological problems of theproject; (3) research problems and the development of the FlemishFolk Games File; (4) present research on traditional games ofchildren; (5) play activities of children in different cultures; (6)problems of the project from an ethnological point of view; (7)traditional games of Japanese children; (8) children's lore andtraditional games in Finland; (9) play as a subject of ethnologicaland educational research; (10) play, tradition, and traditionalgames; (11) the contribution of basic research to the survival of theAwele game; (12) differences in the authenticity of children'sexpression and the viewing angle of adults; (13) traditional games inthe kindergarten; and (14) the protocol for the collection oftraditional games, including Form Al for the description of gamesacquirei from adult informers, Form A2 ftpr the description ofobserved games, and an explanation of the protocol. The collection isintended to serve as a handbook for research and as an invitation toother interested scholars to participate in the project. (RH)

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U S DEPARTMENT OF EOUCATIONOffice of Educational Research and Improvement

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIOI,CENTER (ERIC)

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;14) Traditional'n Games7,4

czo

and Childrencn of Today

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

I

Belgrade-OMEPTraditional Games Project

TraditionalGames

and Childrenof Today

Belgrade 1986.3

Editors:

Prof. Dr. Ivan Ivid

Prof. Dr. Aleksandra MarJanovid

Publishers:

OMEP (World Organization forEarly Childhood Education)

in collaboration with:

Yugosl. , National Committee of OMEP

Institut, of Psychology,Universi y of Belgrade

Published with UNESCO subvention

Cover design - Borut Vild

Printing bySavez druatava psihologa SR Srbiie.

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SUMMARY

The Fundamentals of the ProjectIvan Ivid 7

The Thmoretical and Methodological ProblemsConcerning the Project on Traditional Games

Aleksandra Marjanovid 31Tradition in Action - Applied Sport History:

The Flemish Folk Games File- Ronald Benson, e.a. 51

Experiences of the Research so far done onTraditional Children's Games- Ivan Ivid 67

The Play Activities of Children inDifferent Cultures- Ivan Ivid 83

The Remarks of an Ethnologist Concerningthe Project of Research on TraditionalChildren's Games- Zorica Rajkovid 93

Traditional Children's games in JapanEtsuko Nakamura 99

Children's Lore and Traditional Gamesin Finland- Kalle Justander 103

Play as a Subject of Ethnologicaland Educational Research

Ludvik Horvat 1)7Play, Tradition and Traditional Games

Sinikka Kuosmanen 113Fundamental Research as a Contribution

to the Survival of the Awele Game- Jean Retschitzki 117

Differences in the Authenticity ofChildren's Expression and theViewing Angle of the AdJlts (II)- Elly Batid 125

Traditional Games in the KindergartenJadranka Nikid 1'1

The Protocol for the Collection ofTraditional Gamea- Aleksandra Marjanovid 1_'7

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

ELLY BASIC, musicologist, Ilica 34, 41000Zagreb, Yugoslavia

LUDVIK HORVAT, Ph.D., psychologist, assis-tant professor, Filozofski fakul-tet, Univerzitet - LJublJana,Miklotieeva 16/II, 61000 Lubliana,Yugoslavia.

IVAN IVIC, Ph.D., associate professor,Filozofski ft.ultet, Univerzitet -Beograd,, Cika Liubina 18-20, 11000Beograd, Yugoslavia.

JUSTANDER KALLE, Executive director,LastensuoJelun Keskusliitto, Can-tralforbundet for Barkskydd, Arm-feltintie 1, 00150 Helsinki 15,Finland.

SINIKKA KOUSMANEN, psychologist, MannerheimLastensuoieluliitto, II Linia 17,00530 Helsinki 53, Finland.

ALEKSANDRA MARJANOVIC, Ph.D., pedagogue,associate professor, Filozofsk:fakultet, Univerzitet - Beograd, CikaLJubinr 18-20, 11000 Beograd,Yugoslavia.

ETSUKO NAKAMURA, assistant professor, OtsumaWomen's University, 2-41-6-103Asahigaoka, Nerima, Tokyo 176, Japan.

JADRANKA NIKIC, pedagogue, Zeaching assis-tant, Institut za pedagogiiu,Univerzitet - Novi Sad, Bul. radniekwsamouprave 25, 21000 Novi Sad,Yugoslavia.

ZORICA RAJKOVIC, ethnologist, Zavod zaistrativanJe folklore, Soc. revolu-ciJe 17, 41000 Zagreb, Yugoslavia.

ROLAND RENSON, Ph.D., professor', Institutvoor LichameliJke Opleiding,Katholieke Universiteit Leuven,Tervuursevest 101, 8-3030 Leuven,Belgium.

JEAN RETSCHITZKY, psychologist, professor,Psyhologisches Institut, Univer-eitat Freiburg, 14 rue St. Michel,1700 Frieburg, Switzerland.

,. ... . ,....

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The publication "Traditional Games and Children ofToday" has come about as a result of the Conferencededicated to the Belgrade-OMEP Project an traditionalchildren's games, held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, inOctober, 1985. It contains the plenary and brief re-ports, as well as a summary of the discussions thattook place at this Conference.

The Belgrade meeting represented the first step inthe realization of the Belgrade-OMEP Project on tra-ditional children's games, which was included inOMEP'e program at the last World Congress in Geneva.This was an opportunity for professionals and the reel.presentative, of various OMEP 'member - countries tomeet, exchange their experiences and their theore-tical and methodological views, and to acquaint them-selves with the ways in which traditional games wereso far collected in particular countries, interestingdescriptions of some already recorded games, and theresults of various attempts at their revival in theeducational and recreational work with children.Therefore, the discussions were focused on the init-ial questions concerning the Project, which demandedcommon answers as well as organizationally sound so-lutions for the realization of the Project in varioussocieties, so that everyone could begin working intheir own milieu. The publication "Traditional Gamesand Children of Today" is also only the first in aseries of others which we expect will result from theProject realization. That is why certain very impor-tant and extensive reports, such as the one about theclassification of traditional children's games (Mrs.Denise Baron, Canada), were not included here. Wehave reserved the mentioned report for one of theforthcoming publications, which should appear whenthe Project is in the phase of the classification andanalysis of the collected games. Some very interest-ing reports were also not included, because theytreated general problems of play and not traditionalgames.

The purpose of this publication is two-fold. Wehope that it will, on the one side, serve as a sortof handbook for the present collaborat)rs on the Pro-ject in their research work. On the other hand, wewould like it to inform and attract tc the Projectthe greatest possible number of potential partici-pants, both among OMEP members and the professionals

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al.d institutions who are already working or, the r-e-

s,edrch of traditional games and looking for ways oftheir revtval. The new collaborators which might Jointhe Project as a result of reading this publicationwould not only contribute to the joining of thegreatest possible number of countries in a common,Interesting ,,And useful endeavour in the education ofyoung children, but would also bring more new, origi-nal and fruitful ideas to the Project. That would be-come the guarantee that the Project will be betterable to fulfill complex tasks and achieve its objec-tives.

This publication is the result of close collabora-tion between OMEP International, the Yugoslav Natio-nal Committee of the OMEP as the scientific research,and the Institute for Psychology of the Faculty ofPhilosophy in Belgrade, which was appointed coordina-tor of the entire Project. The publication, as wellas the organization of the Conference, was made pos-sible through a subvention by UNESCO, to which we ex-press our gratitude. We would also like to thankagain all those participants from various countrieswho have been engaged in the realization of the Pro-ject from the very beginning, contributing to thesuccess of the Belgrade Conference and thus making,this publication possible. We particularly wish tothank and acknowledge Mrs. Madelleine Goutard, WorldPresident of the OMEP, who has continuously supportedthe Project, the organization of the Conference, andthe publication of this volume.

The Editors

Ivan Ivid

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE PROJECT

This document is based on the work so far done on thepreparation and realization of the Belgrade - OMEPProject on traditional children's games. It containsthe information, reflections, and conclusions arrivedat by the authors and coordinators of the Project inthe Yugoslav National Committee of the OMEP, as wellas the results of an international exchange of opi-nion about the problems concerning the project whichhad taken place inside the OMEP over the course ofseveral years.

This document is 3n particular based on the re-sults cf the International Conference about the Bel-grade - OMEP Project on traditional children's games(Belgrade, October9th - 11th, 1985). In the prepara-tion of this document we had in mind the views expre-ssed in the main lectures and other contributions atthe Conference and, in particular, the internationalplenary discussion about the goals and the theoreti-cal, methodological, and practical problems concern-ing the Project.

1. The Initiative

This Project was first suggested at the 1979 Assemblyof the OMEP (World organization for Preschool Educat-ion) in Vienna by the delegates of Denmark (J.Sisgard) and Yugoslavia (I. Ivid). The initial propo-sition was formulated by I. Ivid (in the office ofpresident of the Programme Committee of the OME*),and the Project was accepted in principle by the OMEPat its meeting in Helsinki in June 1981. I. Ivid wasthen appointed the project coordinator. h. that capa-city, I. Ivid has defined the theoretical frameworkof the project (see appendix 5), and A. MarJanovidhas elaborated a methodology for the collection ofgames. Both these documents had been distributed to

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the National Committees of the OMEP for discussion. Adiscussion about the integral project took place at

the OMEP Congress in Geneva (August 1983). The Pro-ject was adopted, enlisted in OMEP' working programand added to the list of projects offered to UNESCOfor cooperation. Yugoslavia was commissioned with the

realization of the Project. The Yugoslav National

Committee of the OMEP appointed the Institute for

Psychology of the Belgrade University as the scien-tific research coordinator of the project. In that

capacity, the Institute for Psychology has taken aseries of steps towards realisation of the Project: aresearch outline was elaborated, trial field work wasdone, Prufessor B. Sutton-Smith of the USA was invi-ted - by ccurtesy of the Fulbright Commision - for a

fortnightly visit to Belgrade as counsellor for the

Project, being the leading expert on traditional

games.The International OMEP and the Yugoslav Natioral

Committee of the OMEP have organized an internationalconference about the theoretical, methodological and

practical problems concerning the project. It washeld in Belgrade (Yugoslavia), on October 9th - 11th,

1985. There were about 120 participants, includingthe representatives of 14 National Committees of the

OMEP from five continents. Three main lectures and

fifteen brief reports were delivered at the Confe-rence. A great deal of time at the Conference wasdedicated to an international exchange of opinion on

the objectives and the theoretical, methodological,and practical problems pertinent to the Project.

2. Project Objectives

The basic idea of the Project is the followings everynational, ethnic and cultural group owns a treasury

of traditional children's games, which still have a

great cultural and educational value today. However,

the existing wealth of material is nowhere recordedand runs the risk of disappearing or being distorted

in the course of swift social change. Therefore,

OMEP's task is to make a record of the traditional

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zhildren's games in different countries according toa unique methodology. This is, basically, the samekind of task as the collection of other forms offolklore (fairytales, folk songs, stories, customs,atc.).

Beside this fundamental goal of preserving a formof folk culture, the Project also sets other objec-tives: to examine the possibilities of using tradi-tional children's games in contemporary education, totest their possible role in preserving national iden-tity, particularly in migrant children, to make acomparative analysis of the game: from different cul-tures.

Based an such a conception of the project, we mayplan to optain the following final products of theProject:

a) Anthologies of traditional children's games:- local, national and international

anthologies- thematic anthologies (c'.g. anthologies

of competitive and cooperative games, orinteractive, communicative and social-izing games, or moturic vs. intellectualgames, etc.)

- anthologies of games for children ofvarious age groups (early childhood,preschool, elementary school).

b) Products related to the implementation ofgames:- video cassettes with selected games and

the ways of employing these in the edu-cation of children

- video and computer games inspired bytraditional children's gamessets of playing materials (which includethe material for playing certain gameswith the description of the game rules)commercially made traditional toys whichserve as props in traditional games (thetoys being either in the traditionalmanner or being modeled in a modernfashion and made of contemporary mate-rials using contemporary technology).

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c) Campaigns and action-oriented projects:- the creation of major centers for tne

revival of traditional children's games,which would offer special conditionscreated to allow contemporary childrento enjoy playing traditional children'sgames

- action research of the effects of intro-ducing traditional children's games incertain children's groups (in kinder-gartens, children's holiday camps,schools, etc.)

- the diffusion of traditional children'sgames through the medium of TV programsfor children and educational programs.

d) National and international bibliographies ontraditional children's games (Suggested byV. Mi4urcova, Czechoslovakia).

At the Conference in Belgrade, it was also suggestedto have in perspective certain preliminary productsof the Project (produits intermedialres, defined byG. Brougere, France). The definition of such preli-minary products would contribute to the usefulness ofthe Project's results even before the entire Projectis completed within a given country or the OMEP. Suchintermediary products would include the compilationand copying of the first minor collections of tradi-tional games (collected in one town or some narrowregion), and placing these at the disposal of theyoungsters' educators who could try these games outin schools, kindergartens and the family, to see howthe children accept them; they would also includeamateur video-tapes of the traditional games of cer-tain regions and their employment in eoucation, TVbroadcasts about the Project of collecting tradi-tional games while it is still going on, the publi-cation of bibliographies on traditional children'sgames, etc. According to G. Brougere's idea, thesepreliminary results of the Project would inspire newcollaborators to join in.

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3. The Theoretical and Methodogical Problems Relatedto the Project

A number of Con'erence participants ha.e discussedthe theoretical purpose and Justification of thisProject (in particular: J. Grasza - Poland, A.Marianovid - Yugoslavia, R. Benson - BBlgium, Z.Rajkovid - Yugoslavia, J. Retschitzki - Switzerland,I. Blacknev - Great Pritain, E. Balks - Norway, M.Petid - YtooslaviA, 0. Murd2Eva - Yugoslavia, M.Ko2id - Yugoslavia, G. Bourgere - France). They have,in the course of discussion, seriously posed theproblems concerning the lack of a theoretical basisfor the project, the justification of recording gamesout of 'ontext, the meaning of the concept of tradi-tional games, and the stability and change in tradi-tional games.

Due to the nature of, the OMEP, which is not ascientific association, and to the variety of con-ditions under which the different national committeeswill be working on the realization of this Project,it is not possible to give a uniform theoretical de-finition f the Project, or to carry it out in a uni-form manner. Therefore, we need a flexible concept ofthe Project which would allow the greatest possiblenumber of countries to join the Project in specificand individually adequate ways.

The fundamental theoretical statements which couldnevertheless ensure a certain unity within the Pro-ject would be as follows:

Traditiunal children's gamer are I' part of thefolk culture (traditions populaires, tradizioni po-polari, Volksdichtung; etc.), i.e., the spiritualproduction of the populace accumulated over a lengthyperiod of time.

The folk culture is the non-official culture ofnon-ruling social strata. It develops in the form oforal culture. This form of its existence determinesmany of its other characteristics. As it is notfixed in the form of written documents, folk cultureundergoes continuous change, incorporatir- the anony-mous creative production of numerous individuals. Itis, therefore, the work of collective creation. Con-

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sequently, this form of culture obeys the "law o4change" (V. Propp), which is primarily manifested in

the exiatance of numerous variations of one givenproduct of the folk culture. Beside the .preservatiorof the original form, the changes consist in: disap-pearance (extinction), innovation, reinterpretation(change in the meaning of the earlier forms), thecreation of hybrid forms, transformation (of content,for example, with the retention of the basic struc-ture), etc. In other words, traditional products of

folk culture reflects two processes: the process ofpreservation, as well as the process of constantchange in the older products which are In continuousinteraction with the socio-cultural milieu of theirorigin.

These basic characteristics of the folk culturealso fully onply to traditional children's games. It

is significant to note, in relation to these gamesand to children's folklore in general, that some of

the conditions for its development still exist undercontemporary conditions. Namely, children in contem-porary societies are still to a great extent a margi-nal social group, their mentality (especially atyounger ages) is well suited to the creative productsof the popular mind (demonstrated, for example, bythe inclination contemporary children show for folktales), the oral form transmission im still very sig-nificant in the children's subculture, with all itsrelevant consequences (the extinction of whatever is

not suited to the children, Cm introduction of in-novations, the creation of hybrid forms), etc. Hence,games are still being created in children's groupstoday in the manner in which adult folklc,-e used totake shape in times past (as well as today in manysocial situations).

The creation of traditional children's games andthe children's social praxis in the form cif playingthese games represent one of the most significantmechanisms in the constitution of generations of

young people as a separate social group (A. MarJa-novid - 'Yugoslavia).

A more detailed outline of the theoretical con-cepts on which the Project is based may be found in

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the papers by the Project authors (A. MarJanovid andI. Ivid - Yugoslavia). These theoretical conceptswhich unAerlie the Project have several importantmethodological consequences, as follows:

a) If traditional folk culture is characterizedby a process of change, then there is nodilemma as to whether one should collectonly ancient children's games or newer ones,too. The basic characteristic of traditionalgames is that they are products of the -Folkculture (and not of the official one), thatthey change, in the process of collectivecreative effort, and that they are, hence,of anonymous authorship ;i.e., there is nosingle author known, there is no copyright,they are not commercial products). The cru-cial criterion for distinguishing traditio-nal games is therefore not the time of theirappearance, but the manner of their creationand the mechrlism of their transmission.

b) It follows from the previous paragraph thatit is very important to record all thevariations which appear in the course oftime (and give dates for their appearence,if possible) or depending on local condi-tions. The data on such variations give ad-ditional information about the nature ofeach game.

c) Bearing in mind the fact that the tradi-tional children's games are interrelatedwith the conditions of life, i.e. the socio--cultural context, it follows that a text--based approach (i.e., the mere recording ofgames, regardless of the conditions of theirorigin and the way they are played incontext) necessarily has its limitations.The cataloguing and description of games andtheir variations is valuable for the preser-vation of Vie games but doesn't allow their'ilnterpreta+.on. It is therefore necessary ,

whenever possible, to add the study of gamesin context to the text-based approach (seesection "The Possible Forms of Participation

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in the Project"). The game-collecting proto-col, offered in two forms (by A. Marjanovi4,Yug oslavia), attempts to overcome as far aspossible the faults of the text-basedapproach. Naturally, in order to totallyovercome it limitations, it would also benecessary to use other research instrumentsthan these protocols. On the other hand, theactual compilation of anthologies of tradi-tional children's games and the effort attheir practical realization represent an at-tempt to introduce these games into life ofcontemporary children, allowing the "law ofchange" of traditional cultural products tobe activated again. In that sense, this pro-cedure may be treated as a form of actionresearch which will enable us to investigatethe link betweer this form of traditionalculture and the children's contemporaryliving conditions.

4, Defining the Categories of Games to be Collectedin the Project

In an intercultural research which is to encompassvery different and distant cultures, it is not pos-sible to set out with a rigid logical definition ofthe phenomenon to be recorded.

However, in order to secure a minimum of unitywithin the project, it is necessary to have a preli-minary flexible definition of the categories of gamesto be recorded in all the countries. In the course ofthe international exchange of opinion on the Project,it was attempted tu define the categories of games tobe collected in all the countries - participants inthe Project in the following wayst by opposition(traditional vs. modern games, children's vs. adults'games, etc.), by ennumeration (listing the kinds ofgames and the particular games to be collected), bythe pa's -,ve, operational (as far as possible) defi-nition of the categories of games to be taken intocollection.

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a) Play and Non-Ludic BehaviorAs there are considerable differences between variouscultures in discerning between ludic and non-ludicforms of behavior, it is necessary to allow the re-searchers in each culture to define that boundary. Asubjective criterion may be of some use: i.e., whatis it that children and adults in each culture con-sider to be play A. MarJanovid, Yugoslavia).

b) The Play of Adults and the Play of ChildrenThe focus in this Project will be on children'sgames, those games played by children themselves, in-dependeritly, at their own initiative, Therefore, playav an autonomous childhood activity is in focus.

However, it is not possible - in many culturesand in certain situations - to separate the play ofchildren and the play of adults.

It is quite certain that at early ages (up tothree or four), the separation is not posible.Therefore, games o4 interaction between adults andyoung children should also be inc7tuded in our Pro-ject, such as bouncing, clapping, tickling games,etc. Experiences from India (M. Goutard, President ofthe OMEP), where such interactional games are verycommon, may serve as an example. Also, researchersshould be allowed the freedom to collect the games inwhich adults and other children play together, ifthese are characteristic for the given culture.

c) Other Farms of Children's Folklore andTraditional Children's Games

Cultural products for children, such as fairy tales,fables, folk tales, etc., are outside the scope ofour Project.Childern's folk-songs in their' pure farm do notbelong to the category of children's traditionalgames which we are collecting in the Project. Ofcourse, many traditional children's games haverhythmic and musical components (counting rhymes,chants and songs as part of more complex 'games,etc.), and those will be recorded.Children's sports are similar in this respect. Thepure forms of formalized and institutionalized sports

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kr?. ,

games (soccer and the like) do not belong to the

category of games collected in this Project. However,

competitive games with motoric components (all games

of skill and agility, etc.), which awe traditional

and have not developed into modern forms of sports

games, do belong to the category of games to be

recorded.

d) Games with Rules and Symbolic Samos

Games with rules are basically in the focus of our

Project ifrom the simplest ones, such as hand-clap-

ping games, to those with very complex implicit

rules). Symbolic games (in the sense of improvized

symbolic games) do not belong to the games we col-

lect. However, many genes with rules contain elements

of symbolic games (masks, disguise, role-playing,

symbolic gestures, etc.), and these complex games

with rules which contain symbolic components do be-

long to the category of recorded games. Also, we

should record all those combinations of games with

rules and symbolic (imaginative) games, in which the

combination is at the center of the game (M. Duran,

Yug,slavia). These are the games in which certain

playing behaviors are decided by rules, while other

parts of the game require originality and creativity

(this usually entails playing certain roles, such as

thief, rescuer, attacker, etc., which require the

formulation of the text in that role, a jocular de-

fence or attack, the humorous twisting of a message,

the witty soluti/An of a riddle, etc.). Such combined

games would be particularly useful in stimulating the

creative abilities of children.

e) The Positive Definition of the Games to be

CollectedSumming up the efforts at defining games, we arrive

at the following specification of the games that

should be collected in this Project. In this Project,

our interest is focused at traditional children's

games which are a part of the folk culture (and not

the institutionalized and organized modern fun and

leisure) in which the child actively employs all his

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physical, motor, sensori-perceptive, intellectual,linguistic, social, and emotional abilities.

This definition excludes the pure forms of adultgames, modern games (with known authors or copy-righted by some company), folk and other culturalproducts for children in which they are not activebut serve as the audience; this also excludes thepure categories of traditional children's dance,folk-songs, and children's sports.

The games to be collected in the Project, thus de-tined, basically can be reduced to two categories: a)traditional children's games with rules, and b)non-rule regulated games, games in which behavior ismostly regulated, but not by rules, but by behavi-oral patterns. Common to these two categories ofgames is that they are quite stable in form (asopposed to the pure forms of symbolic games whereimprovisation is dominant), that they appear as"amazing social institutions" and, as such, form apart of the folk culture and can be transmitted fromone generation to another.

The first category of games - traditional gameswith rules - is characterized by the existence of anexplicit system of rules which regulate the beha-vior of the players. These rules are supraindividual,conventional, and obligatory for all participants inthe game. This does not exclude the existence ofvariations of games and changes in rules, but oncethe players have agreed on the rules and the gamevariation to be played - these become obligatory. Therules may be very simple (as, for example, in allcounting-out procedures), but also may be very com-plex, so that a high level of intellectual develop-ment is required to understand them (so that, forexample, younger children cannot understand them).Typical examples of traditional children's games arehide-and-seek, games of marbles, tag, etc.

The other category of games - those eased onstable behavioral patterns - is much more neterogenones. Their stability arises from the universality ofcertain behavioral patterns, or consists in theritualization of behavior. Playing behaviors ere,therefore, to a great extent regulated in these

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games, ton, bias- not by an explicit system of conven-tional rule,' but by the universality of certain beha-vior oatterns. The universality of patterns isvarious in or It may he the result of thephysical characteristics of objects and toys used inthe game (i.e., the manner of throwing or catching aball or a boomerang, or the game of bow and arrow,etc.). Another source of universality are the motorpatterns in human behavior (e.g., various games ofbalance, Jumping games, leaping, running, all gamesof motor agility, etc.). There are also games whosecharacteristics result from a combination of thephysical characteristics of obJects used in the gameand characteristics of human motility such as rope--Jumping games, sack-racing, walking on stilts,etc.). In all these games, physical, material factorsplay a great role, which was pointed out at the Bel-grade Conference by D. Baron (Canada), stressing thatthis form of games is particularly important for veryyoung children, who cannot yet understand more com-plex games with rules.

Sensori-perceptive patterns are the followingsource of these non --rule regulated games. Here wefind all those games which employ the universalpatterns of sensors-perceptivc oehavior, such astossing games (the tossing up and catching of thechild), fingsc and toe games, watching games, allvertigo games, all games of perceptual dexterity andskill, etc.

Universal patterns of interaction and communica-tion are also a common source of this category ofgames. Here we find the hiding and declosing games(from the simplest, such as peelaboo, to very complexgames with masts and disoulse, etc.), mother-and-infant interaction games, games of competition and

cooperation, betting games, daring games, all teamgames, etc.

Very close to the former games are those which arebased on general patterns of speech behavior: rid-dles and conundrums, dialogue games, message - twistinggames, tuunge-twisters, senseless rhymes, tales with-out ending, word twisters.

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Intellectual games (games of reflection, games ofwit, games of logic, games oC intellectual siill,etc.) are based on universal patterns of intellec-tual behavior.

Although the affectional con:,-.or.ent is pre,.A.nt inall forms of games. there are as so special gimesbased on affectional patterns. !hese are: mat-iesfunny faces, kissing games, games o4 choice based onliking, games of insolence, names of control offeeling (e.g. , laughter), burial and mourning games,wolf-and-lamb games and similar games based on thechild's separation angiety, scaring games, games ofexpression, moci:ing games, etc.

Of course, there are all sorts of intermediaryforms between games of rules and this second categoryof games (games based on general behavioral pat-terns), and it is not always possible to differen-tiate them clearly. That is not even necessary forthe purposes of this protect, as we shall be collect-ing the bath kinds of games. The specification ofthese games and their forms was meant to facilitatethe identification of all the games which are to becollected.

So, two big categories of games (games with rulesand games based on universal patterns of human beha-vior) form a part of the folk culture. They containthe centuries-old playing experience gained withinvarious cultures and human communities. Because ofthe variety and wealth of behavior activated by thesegames, they represent a priceless tool in the stimu-lation of children's development, in the enrichmentof their lives, and the awakening of their enjoymentof life.

When we have in mind the differences between var-ious cultures in the forms of traditional children'sgames, then an international project aimed at theircollection and revival gains even greater signifi-cance.

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5. The Classification of Collected Games

In view of the Project objectives and the proposedfinal products (see previous sectionz,), it will benecessary to pose the problem of the classificationof collected games in a particular light.

In solving the problems of collection, all the re-levant classification systems will naturally be used(Caillois, Piaget, etc.), but, due to the special re-quirements of the Project, it will also be necessaryto elaborate special classification systems for thegames to be compiled in various countries. 1,1eseclassification systems will be based on the followingcriteria: game content, the psychological functionsemployed in the game, the social-psychological func-tion of the games, the psychogenetic (developmental)criterion, the structure of games.

At the Belgrade Conference, a very valuable con..=

tribution toward the elaboration of.a system for theclassification of games was given by D. Baron(Canada>, who summarized her book on that topic. (D.

Baron: La classification des Jeux et des Jousts, LaPocatiere, Documentor, Quebec, 1985).

Setting out from formerly known systems for theclassification of games and the Baron system, theproblem of game classification will be solved infurther stages of work on the Project by the methodof individual exchange of opinion between the Projectparticipants. This line of problem-solving is madenecessary by the need for the classification system,which.is to be used in the project, to take intoaccount the cultural variety which is to be expectedin any intercultural project. In '..tr words, thesystems of classification must not ow rigidly definedbefore- hano, but, must be adapted to the nature ofcollected games.

6. The Possible Forms of Participation in the Project

Due to great differences between the member-countriesof the OMEP, the forms of joining in this common OMEPproject have to be very flexible.

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The manner in which any given National Committeeof the OMEP will participate in this Project will de-pend onthe following factors: the needs (edur_atio-nal, cultural, etc.) for such an endeavor of collec-ting traditional children's games, the present stateof affairs in the country (in some countries therealready exists large published collections of games,in some places this has only partially been done,while these games have hardly at all been recorded inother countries), the available professionals forwork on the Project (ranging from amateur collectorssuch as teachers, to professional researchers andentire research istitutions), the availablefinancial resources, etc.

Because of these differences in the conditions forthe realizatic) of the Project in various countries,the OMEP National Committees, other national institu-tions, as well as individual participants in the Pro-ject, may choose one or more of the following formsof joining the work on the Project.

Model 1: The Compilation of Collections ofTraditional Children's Games

This form of participation is the simplest one. Itrests on the text-base approach which was mentionedin the section on the theoretical and methodologicalproblems of the Project. In brief, this form of par-ticipation in the Project consists in the collectionand description of those traditional children's games(and their variations) which were defined in the pre-vious sections of this document.

The collecting of games is done on the basis offollowing sources: bibliographic sources (the compi-lations of games previously published in various ma-gazines and books), iconographic sources (the identi-fication and reconstruction of games depicted in pic-tures and paintings), adults or children as informerswho give descriptions of games. For the purpose ofthese interviews, researchers may use the protocolfor collecting games - form Al.

When the Project is being realized in this form,non-professionals may be employed as research colla-

borators: kindergarten and elementary teachers, stu-dents, cultural propaganda workers, etc.

On the basis of the games thus collected, it willbe possible to publish local, regional, and nationalanthologies of traditional children's games (eithergeneral, tnematic, or age-specific). Each c,,untrywhich makes a collection of games on its territory inthis manner will also give its contributions tointernational anthologies.

On the basis of the collection of games thus com-piled, it is possible to implement these games di-rectly in working with children (in day-care insti-tutions, schools, using the mass media). Therefore,attempts at the revival of traditional children'sgames based on such collections are possible.

The limitations of this form of participation inthe Project are evident. The most fundamental ofthese is that children's games are being separatedfrom children's playing practice and the social, cul-tural, and historic context in which they were crea-ted and in which they now exist.

Model 2: The Study of the Practice of PlayingTraditional Children's Samos

This form of participation may be a continuation ofthe previous form, or may be carried out indepen-dently.

The basic characteristic of this form of partici-pation in the Project is that it does not end withthe description of games, but also studies the actualprocess of playing traditional children's games, theplaying behavior in some precisely defined setting(i.e., a single city quarter, an entire small town, asingle village or a region, some ethic or nationalgroup, etc.).

The new information obtained in this sort of re-search of traditional children's games includes:which games (and their variations) are. still presentin the lives of children today, With what frequencyare certain games played, how widespread certaingames are in various children's groups (various agegroups, boys and girls, village and city children),

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what is the exact moaning of a dame for ch ldren kasgames, which appear to be the same in a tes:t-basedrecord, wa; have quite different meanings in playingpractice), how these games change ,n the moderntimes, what are the chAnnels and mechalisms ior theirtransmission among contemporary children, "L :.

This form of research also requires the collectionof data on children's groups and the env(ronmentssurrounding the practice of these games (the geogra-fical location of the settlement, the children'seLhic, cultural, and linguistic identity, An overalldescription of the settlement, basic data -about theeconomic, social, and cultural status of the milieu,etc.).

For collecting data on the playing pract:.ce oftraditional children's games, field workers mAy useLhe game collecting protocol - form A2. It is neces-sary, besides, to gather the data mentioned in theprevious paragraph from the relevant sources.

This form of participation in the Project may aswell be realized by collaborators who Are not prof-fesional researchers (teachers, cultural propagandaworhers, etc.), although this form of research setsmore complex tastes before them: the observation ofchildren'', behavior in play, the collection of dataabout the emironment, etc. Besides, it is necessaryto provide certain technical aids (a camera, tape orcassette recorder, optional video equipment) in orderto mate a more accurate recording of certain beha-viors (characteristic playing scenes, facial expres-sions, the musical-rhythmic components of the game,etc).

This second form of realization of the Project canproduce the following results: various collections ofgames, notably those games still present in the livesof children in certain settings, or video :assetteswith selected games. Besides, the study of the actialprocess of playing traditional games in certain set-tings and the other collected data allow an exact un-derstanding of the meaning a game has for children ina giv'n context, an understanding of the process oftransmission and preservation of traditional child-ren's games, insight into the prefer-2nces of children

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for certain kinds of games, into the frequency withwhich certain games are played, etc.

Model 3: The Study of Traditional Children'sSame, in a Socio-cultural Context

This model of realization of the Project comprisesboth the previous ones (i.e., the cataloguing ofgames in a given environment and the study of theplaying practice of the games). The basic charac-teristic of this model is the study of the context(historical and socio-cultural) in which the gameshave originated and in which they live. Therefore, incontrast to Model 2, in which only the fundamentaldata about the context are gathered, we have here acomplete original study of that context. Once theethnic, cultural, regional, or some other group onwhich the reseaerch is conducted is defined, thesystematic collection of the relevant data about thedefined environment is undertaken.

The first group of relevant data concerns tradi-tional children's games (similarly to Model 1, androughly following the protocol Al. Then, whenevermade possible by the available sources, an attemptshould be made to collect the data on the origin andhistory of these games, which includes informationabout the processor of transformation of these gameswithin some period of time (e.g., in the past cen-tury). This means, further, that a study i also madeof the games preserved in contemporary children'splay (i.e., Model 2 of research).

The next aspect of research consists in the studyof the relationship between those categories of tra-ditional children's games which are collected in thisproject and other forms of children's folklore, aswell as those forms of adult folklore which are rele-vant for the understanding of traditional children'sgames.

The basic value of this form of Project realiza-tion lies in the study of the social, cultural, andhistorical context found in the locality under thestudy. This practically means that, beside the col-lection of children's games, we conduct historical,

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cultural, ethnographic, sociological , and social--psychological research which will help us define thebasi parameters pertinent to the particular environ-ment or human community in question. This kind ofresearch, naturally, requires a special research planto be made and special instruments to be elaborated(or the results of already completed research areusing).

Unlike Models 1 and 2, this kind of thoroughlyplanned research project allows us to place tradi-tional children's games in context. This opens thepossibility of interpreting these ames: theirorigin, their historical development, their inter-relation with other forms of culture, their related-ness to the life of a certain human community. Inthis way, such a research may become explicative.

An example of research closest to what we describein Model 3 can be found in the study of folk gamesof New Zealand, described in the book by B. Sutton--Smith (1972): The Folkgames of Children, Univer-sity of Texas Press. Austin-London.

Model 3 of realization of the Project actually hasall the characteristics of a scientific research pro-ject. Therefore, it can only be carried out by pro-fessional researchers and completely equipped insti-tutions for scientific research.

Model 3 of realization of the Project mAy resultin all the final products described in the relevantsection of this document.

Model 4: Various Forms of Revival of Traditional.Children's Games

This form of realization of the Project consists invarious attempts to introduce traditional children'sgames into the lives of contemporary children. Thismode of pro)ect realization will, therefore, mostoften take the form of an action-oriented experiment(an experiment in the sense that we are trying toascertain the extent to which contemporary childrenwill accept traditional games), or various forms ofcultural campaigns or cultural animation. The revivalforms may vary in scope from the creation of large

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specialized centers for the revival of traditionalgames (some sort of "live museums" of these games) to

simple, limited attempts at introducing these gamesin individual kindergartens.

An example of an ambitious attempt of this sortwas described at the Belgrade Conference by R. Renson(Belgium). It conrerns a center founded in Flanders,

Belgium.Other forms of revival were also described at the

Belgrade Conference: a revival of the people's circusin Brazil (R. Dinello, Urc4uay), an attempt at ins-piring traditional game playing in the family and thePlay Day campaign in Finland (S. Kuosmanen), experi-ences with the revival of traditional children'sgames in the kindergarten (J. Nikid, Yugoslavia),using traditional children's games and toys in themodern kindergarten (E. Nakamura, Japan), the cre-ation of dramatic workshops inspired by traditionalgames (a workshop was organized at the P,,Igrade Con-furence by Li. Beljanski-Ristid, Yugoslavia).

These are only a few of the possible ways of re-vival of traditional children's games. Other formsmight be: video cassettes with selections of tradi.-

tional games, regular TV series on local or nationaltelevision, che introuuction of traditional child-ren's games in schools with various educational ob-jectives, the practice of traditional children'sgames in children's holiday camps, etc. Of course, it

is also possible to implement all other forms that

can be thought of by teachers, volunteers, cultural

propaganda workers, writers for children,dramaticcreators, etc.

The four described models for the realization of

the Project should only facilitate the decision of

the National Committees of the OMEP to take part in

the project. The models could also be used to des-cribe phases of realization of the Project (the

logical order would be from Model 1 to Model 4).

Besides, combinations of the four described models

are possible (e.g., Model 1 - game collecting, andModel 4 - some form of their revival, etc.).

The choice of the model of project realization re-mains, naturally, the exclusive right of each Nation-

" ", -%

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al Committee and other national institutions. Thechoice should take into consideration the actual cul-tural and educational needs of each environment, thestatus quo in the collection and study of traditionalchildren's games, and the available material and pro-fessional capacities.

7. The Organization of the Project

This Project is a part of the working program of theOMEP (World Organization for Preschool Education).The international OMEP has appointed the YugoslavNational Committee to be the Project executor. TheYugoslav National Committee of the OMEP has entrustedthe scientific aspects of work on the Project to theInstitute for Psychology of Belgrade University.Therefor, this Institute appears as the scientificresearch organizer and supervisor of the Project.

The Institute address is;

INSTITUT ZA PSIHOLOGIJUFILOZOFSKI FAKULTETCIKA-LJUBINA 18-2011000 BEOSRADYUGOSLAVIA

Tel. 638-7t4 (area cude for Yugoslavia 38)(e.rea code for Belgrade - 11)

The persons at the Institute for Psychology respon-sible for this Project are Prof. Dr. AleksandraMarjAnovid, Prof. Dr. Ivan Ivid, and GorjanaLitvinovid (scientific research secretary of theProject).

The National Committees wishing to participate in

the Project are responsable for deciding on the modeof organization for the realization of the Project intheir own country. The executors of the Project in

tHe individual countries may be: the National Commit-tees or other national institutions (scientific re-search institutions, universities, professiorAl asso-

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ciations of folPlorists, pedagogues, teachers, etc.),or individual persons.

The financial resources for the realization of theProject have to be provided by the Project exe- cutorin each country from national sources.

For the realization of the international aspect ofthe Project (meetings, the printing of certain docu-ments, the preparation of international anthologies,etc.), the OMEP will try to provide special resour-res. The source of these may be: OMEP's budget, sub-ventions by other international agencies and foun-dations, the National Committees' resources (parti-cularly for the organization of Project-centeredmeeti'!gs in the given country and for the preparationand printing of Project documents).

8. 'dlines

document, which is to serve as a basis for theject, precedes its realization in all the coun-les wishing to participate.The National Committee of the OMEP, other national

institutions, and interested individuals shouldannounce their participation in the Project beforethe OMEP Congress in Jerusalem (in July, 1986).Applications should be sent to the address of theInstitute for Psychology (as given above).

A special meeting devoted to this Project will beheld at the Congress in Jerusalem (July, 1986).

The Norwegian National Committee (E,,a Balke) hassuggested that the annual OMEP seminar which will beheld at the time of the OMEP World Council meeting in1987 in Oslo to be devoted to the problems o-F theproject "Anthologies of Traditional Children'sGames". That will be a good occasion to discuss allthe current problems related to the Project and toagree on further phasas of Project realization (theelaboration of a sy.tem of classification of games,the preparation, of international anthologies, etc.).

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9. What is Expected of Each National Committee

Toward the end of coordinating the activities o-f theNational Committees and the most efficient executionof the Project in the different countries. eachNational Committee of the OMEP should accomplish thefollowing:

a) Decision on its participation in the Project.b) Announcement of its participation in the Pro-

ject. The application is to be submitted tothe address of the Institute for Psychologyin Belgrade given above. It should contain:the decision about participating in theProject, the address of the national institu-tion/s and individuals who are to be the exe-cutors of the project, the chosen model forthe realization of the project.

c) Organization of the national institutions andindividuals who are to participate in theProject.

d) Provision of the financial resources for therealization of the Project in their owncountry.

e) To establish the contact with the Project co-ordinator and the Institute for Psychology inBelgrade, in order to deliver all commentsand suggestions, and ask t' e Project coordi-nator for all the necessary documents, thebibliography, or other forms of aid.

f) To send all relevant material to the addressof the Institute for Psychology, includingdescriptions of all collected games, descrip-tions of other activities undertaken as amode of realization of the Project, the col-lection of traditional games formerly publi-shed, and national publications relevant tothe Project.

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Aleksandra Marjanovid

THE THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMSCONCERNING THE PROJECT ON TRADITIONAL GAMES'

1. Why we must formulate our own theoretical andmethodological framework for the project "Antho-logies of Traditional Serous"

The collection and study of traditional games hats

itself a long tradition.In the book "Games of the World" (Grunfield, F.

1979), we are informed by the author of the preface,R.C. Bell, that the first collection of folk gameswas published in 1263 by the Castilian king Alfonsothe Wier, exactly 700 years ago. The learned King'sintention was to issue an encyclopedia of knowledgeand skill, and he enlisted play as a t.ubject of im-portance, alcng with "history, religion, astronomyand magic".

Both the King and his work may be considered ahistoricalrarety. However, not only are games anci-ent phenomena, but the reflection about them alsoreaches into the far past. Pictures of traditionalgames have entered the medieval and Renessainceliterature as a means of representing the popular,unofficial, "material-corporal" philosophy of life(Bahtin, M. 1978), play as an ontological problembecame the subject of philosophy relatively early(Siler, F. 1974/1975:, and in the 19th century thecontinuous collection and scientific study of tradi-tional games started taking pace - a somewhat be-lated reflection of the much earlier inflamed elationover the people and folk creations (Cocchiara, G.

1985).Thus, today, beside the fact that every culture is

rich with traditional games, we also have the factthat the human cultural heritage includes numerous

1 During the Conference in Belgrade the official title "TheBelgrade OMEP Traditional Games Project' was adapted.

collections and studies of traditional games and playin general.

We might say that so many predecessors would havetrodden a path far the project "Anthologies of Tradi-tional Games". For it would be natural to expect thatthe long period of research had led to the construc-tion of a relatively consistent theoretical systemwhich could solve the crucial theoretical and metho-dological problems.

However,it is already in the first contact withthe literature that such expectations are shatteredto bits and pieces. Not only does our project notfind the theoretical and methodological groundcleared, but is trapped in a labyrinth of different,often contrary, definitions, approaches, and methodsof studying, explaining and interpreting games, withno Ariadne's thread to take us safely into the open.Avedon and Sutton-Smii.k. (Avedon, E. and Sutton-Smith.B. 1971) have exerted the effort to gather all theconceptual variety in one place, and they demonstra-ted that play is variously defined depending on whatis whished to be marked by it in the various prac-tical areas or, otherwise, which type of behavior,social institution or cultural form is attempted tobe conceptualized in scientific disciplines and theo-ries through play.

As play is studied by very different disciplines -the study of folklore, ethnology, anthropology, soci-ology,'psychology, pedagogy, etc. - it is most oftenthe case that the theories created within these dis-ciplines for the elucidation of phenomena other thanplay (cults, rituals, cognitive functions, defensemechanisms, etc.) are simply extended to play as anadditional field which offers the possibility to testthe applicability, validity, and particularly, therange of a given theory.

The fact that we keep coming back to the initialquestions about play makes us believe that we aretrying to look at something with dim focus. This isbest illustrated by traditional games or games withrules. Almost all great contemporary theories falterwhen it comes to interpreting the nature and functionof games with rules. If we take, as an example,

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Piaget's theory of play, we shall easily see that nomatter how smoothly, within its limits, a great psy-chogenetic theory can deal with sensori-motor andsymbolic games, its attempt at interpreting gameswith rules as the "negative of operational processes"(Piaget, J. 1972) becomes awkward and unconvincing.

The internal incoherence of the scientific know-ledge about play places each new research attempt in

the position to choose between two alternatives:either to adopt one of the leading theoretical sys-tems or to set its own theoretical and methodologicalframework. As the critical consciousness about theexisting theories of play and the manners of itsstudy increases, it is very difficult to accept onetheoretical system as one's own fundamental beliefand the final framework for one's thought. Theproject "Anthologies of Traditional Games" must alsotry to articulate its theoretical and methodologicalstandpoint. That would suppose the definition ofone's conception of children and childhood and play,and using that as the point of reference, the formu-lation of questions, the construction of ways andmeans for the collection and analysis of games, andfinally, the elaboration of a conception of revivalof traditional games.

Another reason for the elaboration of an originaltheoretical and methodological framework is that OMEPhas included such a project as "Anthologies of Tradi-tional Games" in its work programme. Namely, the cue-stion would be: why should OMEP take on the task Lfcollecting, analyzing and publishing collections oftraditional games if such collections already existin almost all its member-countries? This gesturecould only make sense if the Project became a meansof articulating the pressing problems of the growingup of little children in contemporary society, simul-taneously providing a means which could, at least in

one domain, help solve these problems. The ,charac-teristics of the domain of children's play in contem-porary society are representative of the growing-upproblems. The theoretical and methodological frame-work ought to make it possible to identify theseproblems and the processes constituting thcm. Thus,

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in.

OMEP would acquire valuable material, which wouldserve as the foundation for its particular campaigns.

Finally, it is a rare opportunity to have oneresearch project gathering experts from so many dif-ferent countries, cultures and scietific disciplines.This opportunity opens up Many various possibilitiesfor collaboration. However, the success of this col-laboration depends to a great extent on how far wesucceed in the very beginning in reaching a concep-tual consensus. The much-propagated team work inscientific endeavour can bear fruit only if the col-laborators on a given project do not represent a merephysical group, but set up an intellectual unity.This, in its turn, is possible if they are motivatedby the same problems, concerned with the same ques-tions, if they unify their point of view and thedirection of their thought. That is why it is ofimmense importance to thoroughly examine the theore-tical and methodological framework of the project"Anthologies of Traditional Games" right at the be-ginning of the work on it.

2. The conceptions about children and play in studiesof traditional games

The studies and collections of traditional games canbe classified and analyzed according to differentcriteria.

At the present, I have selected an approach whichI believed would bring us closer to the problemswhich are important for the project "Anthologies ofTraditional Games".

Just as the study of folklore is "led by one prob-lem... which gathers and unites the others", (Cocchi-ara, G. 1985), that being the problem of defining theconcepts "people" and "folk creations", the study ofgames is led by certain views on children andchildhood, play and playing. These openly expoun- dedviewpoints most often rest on a covert philosophy ofchildhood and play (or "ideology", as rather term- edby B. Sutton-Smith and D. Kelly-Byrne). This im-plicit philosophy is more general and more fundamen-

3'.,,-.,

ta1 than the publicly professed scientific appro-ach, as it forms a part of the dominant viewpointand permeates both everyday conceptions and scienti-fic theories. It is this kind of philosophy that isleading and misleading in our attempts to understandchildren and their play. That is why I believed thatan analysis of the concepts about children and playwould bring forth the theoretical and methodologicalproblems whirh are important for the project "Antho-logies of Traditional Games".

Using this criterion, we can roughly divide thestudies atbri_tt traditional games into two groups,marked !iy *he predominance of one of two ways ofconcepizualization of children and play:

1- The first special way of conceptualizing child-ren and play can he found in ethnololic.al studies,which include the earliest work., on traditional games(Tylor, A. Gomme, E. Fournier, F.M. Bohme, T. Djor-djevid, etc.).

It should be stressed at once that the early re-searchers in traditional games were not so muchinterested in children, as were they motivated by thebelief that the history of civilization "could not bewritten without a chapter on games and toys" (Cocchi-ara, G. 1995).

For these researchers, traditional games representthe rudiments of anscient customs, cults and rituals,they are the "extension" (Cocchiara, G. 1995), the"reminiscence", for they "keep in themselves the tra-ces of deep antiquity and show something of thingsthat were gone" (Djordjevid, T. 1907). Following thishypothesis, the early studies of traditional gameswere rich in analyses of the origin of particulargames, in attempts to determine the relatedness, ana-logies and hidden meanings of games.

Children appear as the holders and transmitters oftraditional games. They are not the subject of study,but the concept which helps to explain the fact thattraditional games have survived for centuries and aresimilar throughout the world.

Trying to solve this problem, the early research-ers had conceptualized children as a timeless andsocietyfree category in which the universal human

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nature is materialized in a simple and sincere way.

Just as the primitive people have not discoveredcivilization vet, children have not yet been intro-duced to it. The equality of nature of these twocategories is expressed in the same, simple culturalforms. And just as all the forms are ,An the foun-dation of all civilization, con,served and repeated inchildhoJd they serve as the first stepping-stone in

the development of human activity and spirit (Djor-djevid, T. 1907).

Among the contemporary ethnological studies oftraditional games, the work of I. and P. Opie (Opie,

I. and Opie, P. 1979) is in the lead. That is why it

can be taken to represent a tendency in the study of

traditional games and play in general.The Opies are vehement and seemingly justified in

their critisism of treating tr-Aitional games as "ar-cheological relics" (Opie, I. and Opie, P. 1979).

Play is a "living organism" and their research istherefore, directed at the traditional games whichlive in the children's everyday, and which consti-tute, tocather with children's verbal creations, a

single c ,.:ren's folklore, which is an integral partof the a .ual social life of the children.

Dever piny this idea, the Opies view children as aspecial 'people", separate and contrary to the adultsociety, while children's folklore is viewed as analternative culture in which the children can expressall that is forbidden them or that they have to sup-press in the adult world. The Opies Support this as-sertion by citing the difference in the manner of

playing and behavior of children in the street and onthe playground; while play flourishes in the streetand the children act "highly civilized" (Opie, I. andOpie, P. 1979), the playground denies all possibilityfor play and the children become aggressive andbrutal. In their company, children are capable of

social self-regulation. The rules for this self-regulation are contained in games and so, play is thelegislatilm of the children's society and behaviorwithin it. Beside the brilliant analysis of traditio-nal games, the idea about play as the system regula-ting the social life of children is the most fruit-

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ful theoretical supposition offered by the Opitstudy.

The ideas developed by the Opies about childrenand play most often remain merely a conceptual shellfor the research procedure itself. Using the methodde- veloped in earlier ethnological studies, theOpies investigate the origin of traditional gameswithin the domain of children's play, withoutstudying this domain itself. So, instead of giving atheory of the actual and complete domain of child-ren's play, the Opies construct theoretical assump-tions based on a contemporary version of childern andplay as universal categories. As opposed to theadults and independently of social conditions, child-ren are supposed to be by their nature human, crea-tive, imaginative, and self-sufficient, and play isthe only form of free expression of these qualities.This conceptual framework was not subjected to scien-tific control, although the Opies had material attheir disposal which demanded to be articulated andincluded as a constitutive element of play in gene-ral, and in spite of anthropological findings whichproved childhood and play to be socially relativephenomena (Whitnig, Sutton-Smith, Elkonin, Mead,etc.). This manner of deo.ling with children and playtransforms them into militapht4rs for all those humanpotentials which contemporary man feels are deprivedof.

2- The second group of works on traditional gamesis constituted by collections and studies of a peda-gogic character. These are collections of traditionalgames selected and presented in a form suitable foreducational use, while there has been a recent in-crease in the literature on games constructed accord-ing to the model-structure of traditional games, andare destined to be Led in certain school subjects orin the realization of certain educational tasks atvarious phases of children's development (Avedon, E.and Sutton-Smith, B. 1971).

These works treat play as something that exist;regardlessly of the social background and indepen-dantly of experience and life problems of the child-ren. Play is conceptualized as P. educational medium,

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it is instrumentalized. On the other side, childrenare understood as the subjects of education, as moreor less raw human material which can be moldedaccording to the set educational goals and the favor-able developmental achievements, in an unmediated anddirect way.

With time, the reasons for play to be included inthe educational process were forgotten (Elschen-broich, D. 11E10; Sutton-Smith, B. and Kelly-Byrne, D.1983). A conception was gradually developed that playposseses an educational function in the narrow peda-gogic sense, that it can develop directly physicalskills, cognitive abilities, languags skills, etc.This conception is being only recently scientificallyassessed, and so far, only one hypothesis was confir-med, that play enables "", better atmosphere tc L,e!

created in school... anti students are more interestedin simulated activities than in conventional class-room exercises" tAvedon, E. and Sutton-Smith, B.

1971).The conception that it is possible to instrument-

alize play for pedagogic purposes was supported bythe psychogenetic theories of play, which studied itsfunction in relation to the extrapolated psycho-logical processes in the child's development.

The functional investigations of play using themodel of abstract individual development did not takeplay in its integrity, sd that some of its importantcharacteristics were left totally out of scientificconsideration (Sutton-Smith, B. and Kelly-Byrne, D.)

Doubting that play can be legitimately education-alized does not.mean that we deny it has an extreme-ly important and irreplaceable role in the develop-ment and bringing up of children. It only means thatwe are posing the question about the essence of thisrole. Numerous studies of development in ihe evolu-tion and history of humankind (Bruner, J. 1976;Reynolds, P. 1976; Fagan, R. 1982) demonstrate thatplay belongs among the most significant phenomenawhich represent a conditio 3ine qua non for thedevelopment of youngsters, especially human children,in species which are no longer determined exclusivelyby a genetic code. According td these findings, it

38

seems that play has a particular role in organizingthe communal life of young animals and children, aswell as in the support and stimulation of flexibilityin adopting the various patterns of behaviour.

Regardless of the extent to which these two impli-cit philosophies of childhood and play seem to bedifferent and contradictory, they have the same con-ceptual and methodological outcome. Neither takesinto consideration that history and the social orderare constituent elements both of childhood and play,and at a deeper level they are both impregnated bythe civilizational processes into the ideology ofchildhood and play.

3. Children's play in a historical-social perspective

Children's play in contemporary society finds itselfbetween reality and mistif'ation. While children areplaying less and less and le conditions for play aregetting worse, in the con.aptions about childhnc4play is being transformed into the center c: senji-mental fantasy about creative hum ?. nature and afree, happy, fulfilled childhood. In order to cutthrough the underbrush of contradictions which sur-rounds children's play, it is neccessary to studythis phenomenon soberly and demistify play as ametaphor.

In our times, play r longer belongs equally tochildren and adults. While the life of adults is al-most entirely determined by abstract productive work,play is segragated into the limits of childhood. Inthe existing state of affairs, it means that it issupresslad to the margins of life and is actuallytreated as infantile.

This also appears in more recent studies of chile-ren and play as historical-social phenomena (Aries,P.; Sutton-Smith, B.; Elschenbroich, D.; Zeher, H.;Rabe-Kleber, U. etc.). I shall- try to sketch outchildren's play in the preschool institution and infree space.

The institutionalization of the education of lit-tle children has significantly altered the conditions

39

for playing. Firstly, it has separated the living andplaying quarters, so that the natural and intimateambience necessary for play is substituted by the of-ficial one, which is experienced by most littlechildren as some sort of "working place".

The preschool institution is a very specific,artificially created social environment; as a rule,it is poor in social stimulation, because it decrea-ses the possibility for children to communicate withvarious adult persons and to be the witnesses andparticipants of interpersonal happenings; the child-ren stay in too large age-wis,..- homogeneous groups,which are a chance conglomeratic of children; withthe adults w.thin the institution, the children mostoften interact officially as a "preschooler" and"teacher", and very rarely as two close persons whoshare the same experience and have similar motives,.

In this social environment, children's play is

hindered by a number of structural elements in theeducational process, very exactly analyzed by D. El-schenbroich (Elschenbroich, P., 1980). The so-called"free play" is supressed into a "non-productiveperiod", it takes place in a highly functionalizedand severely type-cast space (the common room, thespecial play-corners, the outdoors playground), it

muscly uses industrially produced toys, it is exclu-ded from certain taboo places (bathrr,oms, kitchens,halls, cellars, attics), and it is forbidden in thesituations which provoke "cute playfulness", such asmeals, walks and afrernoon naps.

Play is commonly favored as a part of the educa-tional proress, and is included in the so-called"occupations". Only, the question is how much thisactually is play? Playful educational activities aremost certainly favorable forms and methods of lear-ning, because they allow the children to be active,spontaneous in the process of learning, interested inwhat they are learn:rig, to have a two-way interactionwith their teacher, and to realize a meaningfulmutual communication. However, play is not an intel-lectual activity, although it includes cognitiveprocesses and affects them (Vigotski, L. 1971). It

belongs to another sphere of life 1.:.hich will be

40

discussed further on). The inclusion of play andother similar activities (expressive, investigative,constructive, creative, etc.) into one conceptcreates considerable confusion both in theory .and inthe educational practice (Sutton-Smith, B. and Kelly--Byrne, D. 1983).

Play is particularly significant in establishingthe children's true social life. However, children'ssociety and sociability, as a matter of utmost impor-tance in development, has no place in the pedagogiceye. Preschool institutions are becoming progressive-ly more obssessed with education (instead of bringingup), with the development of cognitive functions andthe preparation of future good pupils. That is one ofthe reasons why children's play in preschool insti-tutions is decaying and why traditional games havealmost totally disappeared from it.

The play of children outside the institutions (inthe family, in the street, in a free space, and inthe playground) shows similar tendencies and traits.Studies about the conditions and play-forms of child-ren (Opie, T. and Opie, P. 1979; Elschenbroich, D.

1980; Zeiher, H. 1983), as well as a research of tra-ditional games conducted by students of PreschoolPeJagogy on the territory of Serbia, show that thesame processes which shape the play domain in insti-tutions act upon children's play in free spaces andbeyond adult control. We are witnessing the effectsof increasing distance between the lives of childrenand adults, living and playing quarters are againseparated, children play for decreasing amounts oftime, playgrounds are highly functional with one--dimensional facilities (Zeiher, H. 1983), cheap com-mercial toys are predominant (Elschenbroich, D.

1980), and play is being progressively influenced bythe mass media, which relates it in form, and parti-cularly in content, to a fictional world (Hengst, H.

1981).The transformed factors and conditions change the

manner of playing itself, as well as the set of gamesincluded in it Research shows that children who playtogether more rarely constitute a permanent playgroup, a "gang", and that play groups are becoming

41

"-e

homogenized by age and sex. Numerous traditionalgames are disappe,.ing off the repertoire, and playis becoming more monotonous. It is particularly symp-tomatic that the symbolic elements of play are disap-pearing or are becoeng stereotyped, so that playbecomes progressively cruder. Elly Ba*id 'Batid, E.1971) has determined in one territory that nudierousmetric and rhythmic structures have disappeared fromcounting rhymes within the span of 25 years; tha datagathered by our students suggest that ceremonial prn-cedures are disappearing from certain games, forexample, the "divination" pronounced in same gamias.Symbolism is .a very important matter in human rela-tionships in general, because it humanizes them andgives them meaning, while it gives play the necessarymysterious charm. According to research, traditionalgames are quickly disappearing, with quasi-games ap-pearing with almost equal speed, especially amongcity children, these quasi-games being full of de-structive potential, lots of crude motor activity,and increased aggresion between the children them-selves.

What are the problems of the growing-up of contem-porary children which are pointed out by this stateof affairs in the sphere of children's play? Thiswill be easier to see and understand in the compari-son between play today and play as it once was

Since Aries' work "The Child and Family Life Underthe Old Regime" (Aries, P. 1973) had become exce-edingly influential, a series of contributions to thehistory of childhood appeared, with detailed infor-mation abc.tt the manner of p'aying and the signifi-cance of play in the life of people before the moderntimes. But works from othrr fields, such as the "Pro-cess of Civilization" by N. Elias (Elias, N. 1939) orthe brilliant work by H. Bahtin (Bahtin, M. 1978)"The Creativity of Francois Rabelais and the FolkCiature of the Middle Ages and the Renessaince", arealso rich sources of information about the total playdomain in earlier ages.

In the old ,tges, play had equally belonged both tochildren and adults. For both, it represented an im-portant segment of life. Just as the children were

42

43

included directly in many fcms of adult life, theyalso participated in adults' festivities, passtimesand games. However, the children also had their ownseparate sphere of play, which was populated and do-minated by numerous traditicnal games. Playing mostcommonly took place in pu.:lic places, in a freespace, without the participation and control ofadults, in age- and sex-wise heterogeneous grouts o.children. And, as can b2 deduced from the evidenceabout that time, a rich and dynamic social life ofthe child,-en took place thr'iugh these games. Whichsphere of existence did play belong to, and what wasits meaning for adults and children?

According to Bahtin's mnalyses, which are con-firmed by the findings of authors in totally differ-ent territories (Aries, P. 1973; Elschenbroich, D.

1980) , play belonged to a "folk, carnival, laughingculture" (Bahtin, M. 1978). It belonged in the sameorder with mysteries, foolery, farce, divination,prophecy, travesties, gorging and all other corporalenjoyments. The folk laughing culture was the incar-nation of the "material-corporal", sensual aspect oflife, it established a "gay, light relativity", itfreed from "all religious and eclesiastic dogmatism,mysticism and awe...", and was raised to the level ofa philosophy about the world. It "turned the darkeschatology of the Middle Ages" into a "gay scare-crow" (Bahtin, M. 1978).

Play was the "most forceful element" of the laugh-ing culture. It was in games that the peculiar viewabout the world found the most Londi.-.sed and liveli-est expression. The games were not merely a simula-tion of the cults9 rituals, customs, current eventsand everyday human relationships, They were "conden-sed formulas of life", miniature models of the whimsof human fate and history: birth-death, happiness--sorrow, gain-loss, enthronement - abdicate Theunpredictability and tragedy of human life werebrought down to the human scale through these games,they were transmitted into a "merry time", and peoplewere enabled to deal with them Play was a socialphenomenon participated in by all, and it wan onlymuch later that "it lust its universal bonds and was

43

44

transformed, by entering into individual lives..."(Bahtin, M. 1978).

Which processes have brought about the essentialchanges in the character and social function of play,and transformed it to the children's play we knowtoday?

The productional-social and civilizational proces-ses which have given form to the modern industrialsociety and the bourgeois social order have likewiseconstituted contemporary childhood and play as anattribute of the former. Two processes played a par-ticularly important role in this:

a) the segregation o4 children in a separatesocial/ group (Aries); and b) the pedagogization ofchildhood and the instrumentalization o4 play (E1-'schenbroich, D. 1980).

Segregation divided the children, separated themfrom adult life, significantly transformed theirrelationships, constituted the children as a separatesocial g. Qvoation, and affected the institutiali-zation of development and education. Together withthe children, play was also segragated, to becomechildren's work. Both children and play are suppres-sed to the margins of a productional and rationalsociety.

On the other hand, the modern way of production,the new social relationships and forms of life de-manded deep transformation in the character ofpeople. The industrial-technical manner and organiza-tion of production need an instrumentalized man:industrious, efficient, devoted to his profession,active, mobile, and with initiative. It certainlycannot be a creature of uncontrolled physical impul-ses, overly sensual and overflowing with emotion. Thecivilizational processes have acted in the directionof forming the "new man": through the instrumentali-zation of the physical-sensual-emotional sphere, anincrease in the "threshold of nausea" (Elias, N.

1939) as an internal barrier, and the liberation andmolding of the productive and rational properties ofman (Elias, N. 1939; Elschenbroich, D. 1980). Civi-lization has its achievements and its price.

44

-45

..,

i.- -The separated position of children in the societyand the civilizational tendencies have borne a newsensibility directed at children and the understand-ing of childhood (Aries, P. 1979).

As children throughout history havL shared thefate of the adults, so in the process of civilizationchildhood became pedagogized (Elschenbroich. D.1980). When pedagogues entered children's inElAtu-tions and even the nuclear family, they saw theirbasic task as the creation of the new man. The educa-tional papers from those times tell of the materialand psychological means and educational measures ap-plied to children in order to suppress or destroy thephysical-sensual-emotional sphere and establish thedisciplined, productive and rational properties ofthe personality (Rutschky, K. 1980; Gstrttner, P.1980; Elschenbroich, D. 1980).

Pley, banned at the beginning of the modern agesas a vice and the "devil's work" (Aries, P. 1979),was introduced into educational institutions by phi-lanthropists (8ezedov, Kampo, etc.) in the attempt tomake these places pleasanter for tne children and asan educational medium as well. It was the philanthro-pists who elaborated the first play pedagogy (El-schenbroich, D. 1980). However, in order to rehabili-tate play and make it useful in education, and withmost sincere intentions, they placed play under thesame principles which supported the idea about thenew man, under a new value and normative system. Thisentire process of the pedagogization of play was ex-perienced and argued to be progressive, and beginningwi'h the first attempts of the philanthropists to theprevent day, entire systems of the educational em-ployornt of play arose.

The problem of growing-up of children in contempo-rary society ensue from the fact that the socialbackground of development, the social interaction ofchildren with adults and Social transaction betweenthe children is seriously ,threatened.

Numerous studies in various wakes of science havedetermined that sociability is an important conditionfor the development of offopi-ing in those specieswhich are not entirely biologically determined. So-

45

(4$

z

ciability is as absolutely necessary for children'sdevelopment as nutrition, care, and all the otherfactors satisfying vital needs. That this is so isconfirmed by the fact that children are, so to speak,genetically predetermined for social interaction(Ivid, I. 1978). For, children arl not given thehuman nature in its entirety. They must discover itin the social and cultural systems which safeguardand represent the historically shaped properties ofman, and they must interiorize it. "The inorganicbody of man" is mediated to the children in theirinteraction with adults. What will be mediated andhow the child will incorporate this into his person-ality will depend on the character of this interact-ion, the nature and variety of social transa +ionsavailable to the child. Play has a special and s.gni-ficant role in the interaction of children andadults. It transfers this interaction from reality toa fictional field, in which it is transformed intoflexible mutual transaction (Bruner, J. 19831.Through it, the forms of behavior which are to beadopted are personalized, and one's own internalworld is simultaneously brought into the social com-munication. Both these significant elements whichconstitute the personality are symbolized and raisedto a level of meaning in play. In developnment, whichruns from the mutual permeation of the child and thesocial environment to the separate and integratedpersonality, play is closely related to the consti-tution of subjectivity.

The interactive relationships with peers representa special type of sociability, a separate factor inthe development of children. As was stated earlier,play is a means of self-regulation in the children'ssocial life (Opie, I. and Opie, P. 1979).

However, we must pose the question: why is it atall important for children to form their own society,and to play in their own company beyond the control

t" of adults?Numerous studies provoke the assumption that inde-

pendent mutual communication belongs to the importantconditions and forms of growing up in many species,while in the human species it is a dominant condition

46

,;. 47

in this process (Bruner, 3. 1976; Reynolds, P. 1976;Fagen, R. 1982).

If it weren't for the general misconception, bothin science and in everyday thought, that developmentflows from the individual to the society, and notvice versa, due attention would have already beengiven to the fact that the social life of childrenbeyond adult control is a very important link in thedevelopment of both the society and the individual,and that it cannot be extinguished without repercus-sions. For, each new generation has yet to constituteitself as such. As children belong to a flexible spe-cies, a species actualized in history, they cannotsimply replicate the sociability of elder generati-ons. They must actualize their own type of societyand sociability, which is to happen on the course onwhich they are only about to actualize themselves asindividuals. Play 34 the mast significant form ofactualizing and regulating this sociability in child-hood.

If we take both Opies' works ("Children's Games inthe Street and the Playground" and "Language and Loreof Schoolchildren") as one whole - and they did re-sult from the same research wa see that play istoday, just like long ago, a part of the laughingculture, only exilrd into the limits of contemporarychildhood. Here, again, play is in the order of jar-gon, mocking, rhymes against divination, foolery,tricks, riddles, parodies, nick-names, unusual cus-toms, competing with fate. Here too, it forms part ofa conception of the world, a "joking-serious" commen-tary of the world in which the children grow up. Itis certainly not a mere replication of the adultworld.

Research on younglings of primates show that playis the framework, belonging to generational groups,in which "social" novelties of particular evolutionalsignificance are created (Reynolds, P. 1976). In thehuman species, each generation of children changesold games and folklore, also creating their own, spe-cific new ones; thus using the old and the new, eachgeneration weaves its own social cloth, the interwin-ings of mutual relationships, and the patterns of un-

47

derstanding and sensibility. In the children's soci-eLy, play is the form in which that sensibility andpotential is liberated and molded which will henceplay an important role in new social and culturalachievements. When it comes of age, a new generationdoes not simply enter its epoch by joining in theexisting adult world, but by conquering it with a newsocial being, which has arisen in its greatest partfrom the games and folklore of childhood.

Children's play, in its own way, is in the founda-tion or social and cultural history.

*

In the elaboration of the here expounded theoreticaland methodological framework, I was not led by thenostalgia for the "good old times". Neither was I

mislead by the delusion that children were happieronce than they are now. Human happiness is mostperilous matter, and children are just as happy asadults are. A "happy childhood" cannot be inserted ina world which is not made to the measure of humanhappiness, and we are persuaded about this by theentire history of humankind.

I understand this theoretical and methodologicalframework as a heuristic medium. It seems that itallows us to pose fruitful questions about childrenand play in contemporary society within its frame-work; that it brings to focus the factors which con-stitute both childhood and plays that it brings us toreality and does not lead us into vague distances. Weneed all this urgently for the project of "Antholo-gies of Traditional Games", in order that we mightfind the methods for finding information about parti-cular games, the manner and conditions of playing,and that the collected material allow us to reflectrealistically about our intentions and goals.

Perhaps the suggested theoretical and methodolo-gical framework is too "europeanized". Relating it, I

was reassured by the fact that the whole world isheaded more or less the same way. Today's societiesdiffer by tradition, the existing social relations

48

.A

and culture, but the tendencies in development aresimilar everywhere.

Writing this paper, I did not relativize the ideasexpressed in it; I did not use a single "but". Iwanted the problems painted in clear contours andbright colors, aware of the risk I was taking onmyself.

In any case, the expounded theoretical and metho-dological framework is only an invitation to discus-sion, and in no way is it a decree for realization.

REFERENCES

Aries, Ph. (1973). Centuries of Childhood. Har-mondsworth: Penguin Books.

Avedon, E. & Sutton-Smith, B. (1971), The Steldy ofGames. New York: John Willy & Sons.

Bahtin, M. (1978). Stvarala*tvo Fransoa Rablea inarodna kultura Srednjeg veka i Renesanse(Creativity of F. Rabelais and folkculture ofMiddle Ages and Renaissance). Beograd: Nolit.(Serbo-croatian translation of: TvortestvoFransa Rable i narodnaja kultura srednjevJekovnai Renesansa. Moskva: Hudofestvenaja Literature,1965).

Batit, E. (1982). Detje stvaralattvo na otoku Hvaru(1953-1979). Umietnost i dijete, 82.

Bruner, J., Jolly, A. & Silva, K. (1976). Play: itsRole in Development and Evolution. Harmonds-worth: Penguin Books.

Caillois, R. (1958). Igre i ljudi. Beograd: Nolit.(Serbo-croatian translation of: Les jeux et leshommes, (le masque et is vestige), Paris, 1958).

Cocchiara, G. (1985) Ititorija folkiora u Evropi.Beograd: Prosveta. (Serbo-croatian translationof: Storia del Folklore in Europa. Torino: Edi-tore Boringhieri, 1971.).

Djordievid, T. (1907). Srpske narodne igre, (Vol. 9),Beograd: SEZ.

Elias, N. (1939). Der Prozess der Zivilisation: So-ciogenetische and Psychogenetische Untersuchun-am. Basel.

Eischenbroich, D. (1980). Kinder werden nicht ge-

boren: Studien zur Enstehung der Kindheit.bensheim: Pad. extra Buchverlag.

Eljkonjin, D. B. (1981). PsihologiJa dedje igre.

Beograd: Zavod za udibenike i nastavna sredstva.Fagan, B. (1984). The Perilous Magic of Animal Play.

In B. Sutton-Smith & D. Kelly-Byrne (Ede.). TheMasks of Play. New York: Leisure Press.

Grunfield, F. (1979). Jeux du Monde. UNICEF, Geneve:

Editions Lied.Gstettneri P. '1981). Die Eriberung des Kindes durch

die Wissenschaft: aus der Geschichte der Diszi-plinierung. Reinbec bei Hamburg: Rowolt.

Hengst, H., Riedmuliar, B. & Wambach, M. M. (1981).

Kindheit als Fiktion. Frankfurt am Main:

Surhkamp,Huizinga, J. (1970). Homo ludens: o podrijetlu kul-

ture u igri. Zagreb: Matica Hrvatska.Ivid, I. (1978). Covek kao animal simbolicum. Beo-

grad: Nolit.Kelly-Byrne, D. (1984). The Meaning of Play's Trivia-

lity, in B. Sutton-Smith & D. Kelly-Byrne(Eds.), Masks of Play. New York: Leisure Press.

Marjanovid-Shane, A. (1985). Variations on a CentralThemes A Sociogenetic Approach to Development.Unpublished manuscript, PennsilvaniA University,Philadelphia.

Marjanovid, Al. (1975). Igra, stvarala*tvo i pred-4kolsko vaspitanJe. Pred4kcligko dete, 1-2.

Opie, I. & Opie, P. (1969). Children's Play in Streetand Playground. Oxfords Oxford Univer- sity

Press.Opie, I. & Opie, P. (1977). The Lore and Language of

Schoolchildren. Frogmore: Paladin.Sutton-Smith, B. (1972). Folkgames of Children.

Austin-London: University of Text%:.; Press.Sutton-Smith, B. & Kelly-Byrne, D. (1984). Masks of

Play. New York: Leisure Press.Sutton-Smith, B. The Idealization of Play.Preuss-Lausitz, U. (1983). Kriegskind2r, Konsums-

kinder, Kriesekinder. Veinheimt Boltz.Vigotski, (1971). Uloga igre u psthiekom razvoju

dece. Predikolsko dete, 1.

5C.

51

Roland Ronson, Erik De Vroede,Herman Smulders & Chris Schwartz

TRADITION IN ACTION APPLIED SPORT HISTORY'THE FLEMISH FOLK GAMES FILE

Among the sports practised in Flanders - the Dutchspeaking part of Belgium - the so-called traditionalfolk games lead a somewhat sheltered life, and for-tunately many of them have been preserved intact upto this day. It seems that these ancient folk gamessurvived in the regions least affected by the drasticsociocultural changes of the Reformation and earlyindustrialisation. In sport-historical literature agreat deal of attention has been paid to the contro-versial part played in England and Ameri'la by thePuritans who abolished old folk games which indirect-ly led to the emergence of modern sports (cf. the re-levant contributions by among others: Brailiford1969: 122-143, Jable 1974, 1976, Renson 1975, Ruhl1974, 1978, Schneider 1968, Struna 1977, Wagner1976).

The ethno-nationalistic identity factor has alsoplayed a role in conserving certain game traditions,especially where ethnic or linguistic minorities areconcerned. In Europe, this certainly seems the casein regions like the Basgize country, Brittany, Fries-land, Ireland, Scotland and Switzerland, where someof these games have been elevated to the status ofnationalist symbols. This 'traditionalist' renascencepoints to a renewed interest in popular recreationsand pastimes of the 'good old days' (Renson 1984).

Marginal history

As to research methodology, the investigator of tra-ditional folk life is confronted with the subject--matter's marginal character. In the main, he has torely on iconographic material, where the folk gamesappear only as 'images in the margins', as for exam-

51

ple in illustrated Sothic manuscripts (Randall 1966).Among the rather scarce written sources relating totraditional physical activities, pride of place mustgo to the many game prohibiting decrees, deliveredover the ages, but once again their position is mar-ginal (Renson 1980). The researcher may resort tosome regional ethnological publications, but here,too, limitations are evident. For example, many folk-lore contributions on game forms share the characte-ristic that they limit themselves to a mere descrip-tive reproduction of the games - text without context

while others confine each game to a too narrow'parochial' context R.,ee in this connection Sutton--Smith 1976).

Deprived of material from original sources, thefolk sport historian is compelled to go back tosquare one and assume the same role as the firstfield anthropologists, like Franz Boas (1858 -1942)and Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942), who startedinvestigating the cultures of unlettered peoples byparticipant observation techniques. This standardanthropological approach was applied four centuriesago by the Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel (1525-- 1569). He regularly took to the countryside in thecompany of his friend Hans Franckert in order tostudy his subjects by participant observation inloco. Bruegel's contemporary Carel van Mander (1548--1606) bore witness to the following story on PieterBruegel in his famous 'Bchilderboeck' (Painter'sbook) of 1604:

In the company of this Franckert, Bruegel quiteoften went into the countryside at the occasion of avillage festival; they went to a marriage ceremonydressed in peasant clothes and they brought presents,pretending to be alternatively with the bride or withthe groom's party. Here Bruegel found his joy inwatching the farmer's spirit erupt in eating, drink-ing, dancing, hopping, courting and other delights,which he was able to reproduce afterwards in hisfunny, arch paintings (van Mander 1604: 233-234).

Bruegel even portrayed himself in this role ofhis famous painting 'A peasant marriage', where

52

53

he is seated at the corner of a banqueting tab-le, seemingly interviewing one of his infor-mants. Pieter Bruegel can be considered withoutany hesitation as the 'avant la lettre' proto-type of modern game anthropul,vist.

The preceding recount is given as an overview and asan introduction to the incite purpose of this paper,namely, n detailed discussion of present researchnrablems and the development mi. the Flemish FolkGame& Vq!,w.

The Development of the Flemish Folk Games Filo(F.F.G.F.)

The Flemish Folk Games File (F.F.G.F.) was establish-ed at the Institute of Physical Education of the K.U.Leuven during the academic year 1973-74. The filetook the form of a research survey in which as muchdocumentation as possible on games and sports wasgathered. The information was then classified perFlemish municipality. The aim of the project was topromote a more active student participation in thecourse on the History of Physical Education (given byR. Renson). Students were assignee the task of makinga documented study on the history, the orga- nizatianand the meaning of a folk game in their nativemunicipality. Students were asked to become initiatedin their investigational milieu and to get to knowthe nature of particular folk games throughparticipant observation.

As an aid for their research, students were givena manual with methodological guidelines. After aninitial stage of reticence and threshold fright - asmany of the P.E.-students proven unacquainted withthese aspects of sport culture - the reactions grewvery positive both as to the students' engagement andas to the research results. Some P.E.-students re-vealed themselves as real game and sports archeo-logists. As a result of thirteen years of data col-lection, a number of sports that had never been heard

BEST COPUVAILABLE

F:d 54,

of, or had supposedly died out, were brought to

light.The data thus gathered, brought conceptual as well

as clerical problems. Of these, the definition of thenotion 'folk game' and the ccnstruction of a typology

will be elaborated upon in this paper (see also

Renson & Smulders 1978, 1979, 1981). In order to ob-

tain a survey of the available data, the first step

was to check the frequency of the available dossiers

in the F.F.S.F. per province, by turving (see Table

I).

TABLE I t SUBDIVISION OF THE FLEMISH FOLK BAKES FILE PER PROVINC: AND PER MUNICIPALITY

(AMMO 19(4)

Pf &YINCE N. OF MUNICIPALITIES N. OF MONICIPALITIFS

PER PROVINCE FILED

N. OF DOSSIERS

FILED

NEST FLANDERS 249 92 204

EAST FLANDERS 291 81 )42

(1).:41IRP 153 117 299

INUUNINT (FLEMISH) 255 106 193

LIMBURG 212 94 219

- - - --.. - ---

TOTAL (FLANDERS) 1167 490 1057

This survey howev ',r cannct aspire to completeness

as it has been distilled out of already erasting

files, and is thus limited per se. Nevertheless, we

are convinced that we possess a f,irly true-to-life

image of what exists, or existed, as folk games in

Flanders. Apart from the files themselves, a biblio-graphical collection has been started with all avail-

able historical and folkloric contributions on folk

games in Flanders. Furthermore systematic searches onthe spatial distribution of particular types of folk

games have been undertaken, which have been compiled

in the doctoral thesis by Smulders (1982).

The relatively small number of municipalitiescovered in the provinces of occidental and orientalFlanders, can be explained partly by the geographical

Jai

711110111MIN

situation of the K.U.Leuven. As the dossiers are com-

piled by P.E.-students and as prospective P.E.-

-students from East and West Flanders have a choice

of universities closer to home than the K.U.Leuven,these two provinces are slightly underrepresented.

Definition of the Concept of Folk Games

Defining the notion of a fokl game is central to this

investigation. The two basic criteria applied to

interpret the notion of a folk game were: 1) there

had to be a distinction present between sport (see

Renson 1973) and folk games; and, 2) a dividing line

had to be drawn, implying that one activity was a

folk game whereas another was not. Starting fromempirical research data on the one hand and from cer-

tain literary data on the other (Roberts e.a. 1959,

Arlott 1975) the following tentative definition of

folk games was put forward:

Folk gmts are traditir-tl, local, active games

of a recreational cha Ar, requiring specificphysical skills, strategy or chance, or a combi-nation of these three (Renson & Smulders 1978).

This circumscription necessitates some elucidation 1

A. In this case, by local-traditional is meant that a

certain 'game must have a Flemish historical-cultu-ral background. This historical-cultural character issubstantiated chiefly by archive documents, literary

sources and iconographical material. The turn-of-the--century (1900) was taken arbitrarily as the chrono-

logical limit, becaase thenceforth, British games (or

if one prefers, modern sports) were systematically

imported and adopted in the country. Moreover, in

order to fill the definition, a game had to be an

active game of a recreational character. By active is

meant: active participation (playing yourself);

passive participation as a viewer in thus excluded.

Furthermore the term game presupposes that it is a

recreational activity, which is characterised by 1)

55s,.

C., 1..; 56

organized play, 2) comprcition, 3) two or more sides,4) criteria for determining "..m winner and 5) agreedrules. Other recreational ctivities which do not sa-tisfy these requirements are con.idered 'amusements'(Roberts e.a. 1959). These criteria, of a more orless universal character, are restricted to a speci-fic (Flemish) context; by the previously mentionedcondition of local-geographical tradition.

B. The three elements: physical skill, strategy andchance do not generally emerge separately, but in re-lation. Even after limiting the field of folk gamesaccording to the criteria, de';ned above. not alldoubts are wiped awa,/. A number o4 'borderline games'still require a nominal decision as to whether theyfall into the category of folk games or not. The fol-Jawing physical activities and amusements are forexample not accepted as folk games: folk dancing,theatre, dressage, apiculture, etc...

Construction of a Folk Games Typology and RetrievalSystem

Starting from the previously given definition of folkgames and taking into account the available dossiers,a typology was constructed. An image of the diversityamong the folk games practised in Flanders was ob-tained by means of turving. It imme'iately provedfeasible to categorise the collect- games into'ieveral main headings. Starting from ,rural- struc-tural characteristics, distinguished witIsin the mainheadings, a number of specific subdivisions weremade. The newly obtained subheadings were similarlybroken down until the smallest, yet practical unitper main heading was identified (Renson & Smulders1978, 1979).

Finally, it was intended to devise a classifica-tion system that would later be operational for thestudy of modern sports and children's games. In thisperspective the latter created a great number of dif-ficulties, and it was decided to give children'sgames a separate main heading. Folk games that were

56

practised only at festivals or fairs, were accommoda-ted under the main heading 'Children's and 4sstivalgames'. Quite often these games were only practisedby grown-ups on special occasions, the latt"er parti-cipating in quasi-ritual forms of amusement. In theend a 'final typology was distilled. This typology isshown in Table II, which gives only the main headingsand sub-headings (see also Chart I).

Construction of a childern's game typolcily

The need was felt to differentiate the children'sgames further into subheadings, analogous to theclassification of the overall typology. In order todevelop a specific children's games typology, anextensive study of the appropriate literature wasundertaken in four languages: Dutch (Flanders andHolland), English, French and Berman. First, an in-ventory was made of the different criteria used toclassify children's games. Then, through a compara-tive content analysis the 39 criteria identified werereduced to 23. Finally these were brought back tothree overarching categories situated on a continuum,that ranges from 'formal' over 'structural' to'functional' aspects of children's games. Because ofthe correlation observed between the language groupson the one hand and the formal - structural- functionalcategories on the other, three representative typo-logies were selected: 1. the Renson-Smulders (1978)folk games typology, representing th formal categoryand the Dutch language, 2. the Robr.s e.a. (1959)typology of games, representing the structural cate-gory and the English language and 3. the Chateau(1947) typology, representing the functional categoryand the French language. In order to test the validi-ty and the viability of these three typologies, asample of 75 traditional children's games in Flanderswas drawn and subsequently an attempt was made to fiteach of these games in the three selected typologies.The Renson-Smulders typology (see Chart I) proved tobe the most viable one because most of the gamescould be fitted in it and because a balanced distri-

57

58

bution over the main headings was obtained. However,some minor adaptations and re-arrangements were re-quired in order to obtain a satisfactory solution.This adapted typology is presented in its final formin Table III and Chart II.).

From investigation to active prormtion

From the start of the Flemish Folk Games File, theaims of the project were threefold:

1. to involve students actively in the problems andmethods of the cultural study of games

2. to study the sociocultural functions of games in

society, both in their historical evolution and intheir present status

3. to investigate the practical aprlications of thesetraditional games in order to enrich to presentday recreation scene. In order to reach the latterpedagogical goal, a first folk games workshop wasorganized in May 1977, during which a greatvariety of folk games were constructed and testedas to their applicability in schools and play-grounds, recreation clubs, senior citizens groupsetc. In 1978 folk games were for the first timeadopted and actively promoted within the Sportsfor All-campaign in Flanders. One year later, in

1979, a grand exhibition on 'Folk games and tra-ditional children's games' was set up in the Fle-mish Open Air Museum in Bokrijk at the occasion ofthe International Year of the Child. At the sametime, a permanent folk game route was establish-ed in the museum in order to initiate and to sti-mulate the active participation of the visitors.The success of these and many other similar Way-ful manifestations led to the foundation of theFlemish Folk Games Central in 1980. This organi-sation consists of a trinity of closely collabora-ting institutions: 1. researchers and recreationspecialists from the Leuven Institute of PhysicalEducation; 2. folklore specialists from theBokrijk Air Museum and 3. sports adminis'zrators.

58

IN

and policy makers from the Flemish GovernmentalSports Department (BLOSO). United, these 'play-mates' actualized the nationwide 'Year of the folkgames in Flanders'-campaign from July 1981 tillSeptember 1982 (Renson 1983). As a result of thiscampaign and its ongoing followup, one can saythat folk games are no longer historical rari-ties or folkloristic curiosa, but have become partand parcel of the present day recreation scene inFlanders (Schwartz 1983).

Conclusions

Just like the 'back to the roots' waves in folk musicand folk dance, the promotion campaign of traditionalsports and games, can both preserve our cultural playheritage on the one hand and revitalize modern sportand recreation on the other hand.

However, instead of 'creative anachronism', wewould like to qualify our approach as 'diachroniccreativity'. The latter consists of a return to theroots of play forms, not for the sake of the past butfor the enrichment of the present day quality of playlife !

REFERENCES

Arlott J. (Ed.). (1975). The Oxford companion tosports and arilsa. (pp. 317-319). London: OxfordUniversity Press.

Brailsford D. (1969). Sport and society, Elisabeth toAnne. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Chateau J. (1947). Le jeu de l'enfantt a res troisans sa nature, sa disci lino: introduction a lapedagogie. Paris: Vrin.

De Clercq M. (1980). Poging tot constructie van eentypologie voor de kinderselen in Vlaanderen:bijdrage tot de Vlaamse Volkssport Dossiers.Unpublished doctoral dissertation, K.U.Leuven,Leuven.

59

-60

Jable J.T. (1974). Pennsylvania's early Blue Laws: aQuaker experiment in the suppression of sportand amusements, 1682-1740. J sport history, 1,

107-121.Jable J.T. (1976). The English puritans: suppressors

of sports and amusements?. Can J of history ofsport and physical education, 7, 33-40.

Randall L.M.C. (1966). Images in the margins of thegothic manuscripts. Berkeley (Los Angeles):University of California Press.

Renson R. (1973). Methodologische hulpmiddelen voorhet bepalen van het begrip sportactiviteit.Sport (Brussel), 16, 157-165.

Renson R. (1975). De opkomst van de moderne sport inGroot-Brittanie. Sport (Brussel), 18, 97-105..

Renson R. & Smulders i4 (1978). Situatieschets van devolkssporten in Vlaanderen. Sport (Brussel), 21,167 -176.

Rerson R. & Smulders H. (1479). Volkssport inVlaanderen. In A. Cauwels, U. Claeys & H. VanPelt (Eds), Sport in Vlaanderen (pp. 99-118).Leuven: Acco.

Renson R. (1980). LeibesUbungen. der Bauern andStAdter im Mittalalter. In H. Ueberhorst (Ed.),Geschichte der Leibesubungen 3: Leibesdbungen inDeutschland (pp. 97-144). Berlin: Bartels &Wernit4,

Renson R. & Smulders H. (1981). Research methods anddevelopment of the Flemish Folk Games File.International review of sport sociology, 16,97-107.

Renson R. (1983). Volkssporten in Vlaanderen:terugblik en vooruitzichten. Sport (Brussel),26, 177-192.

Renson R. (1984). The 'traditionalist' renascence,the revival of traditional forms of sports,games, dance and recreation around the world. InICHPER (Ed.), Health, P.E., recreation and dancein perspective, (Vol I of the proceedings of the1983 ICHPER world congress, Wingate Institute).Wingate: Wingate Institute.

Roberts J.M., Arth M.J. & Bush R.R. (1959). Games inculture. American anthropologist, 61, 597-605.

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el

J.K.Riihl (1974). Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des "Bookr.F sports". In Institut fUr Leibeserziehung(Ea.), Beitrage zur Geschichte derLeibeserziehung und des Sportes, (Referate des3. HISPA Seminar - Wien 1974), Wien, InstitutfUr Leibeserziehung, 15, 1-14.

RUhl J.K. (1978). Studien zu Ursachen und AnlassenfrUh-puritanischer Aversionen gegen Sports,Pastimes und Games. In INSEP (Ed.), 7e Congresinternational de 1'H/SPA (pp. 881-892). Paris:INSEP.

Schneider G. (196B). Puritanismus und LeibesObugen(Beitrage zur Lehre und Forschung derLeibeserziehung). Schorndorf: Hofmann.

Schwartz C. (1983). Evaluatie van het jaar van devolkssporten. (Rapport onderzoekseenheidSociaalculturele Kinantropologie), Leuven,Instil:mut Lichamelijke Opleiding K.U.Leuven).

SmLlders H. (1982). TypoLogie en spreidingspatronenvan de yolks orten in Vlaanderen. Unpublisheddoctoral dissertation, K.U.Leuven, Leuven.

Struna N. (1977). Puritans and sport: theirretrievable tide of change. J sport history,4, 1-21.

Sutton-Smith B. (1976). The study of games, ananthropological approach. In R. Renson, P. P. DeNayer & M. Ostyn (Eds), The history, theevolution ,nd diffusion of sports and games indifferent cultures (Proceedings of the 4thinternational HISPA Seminar, Leuven 1975) (pp.5-17). Brussel: BLOSO.

Van dander C. (1604). Het schilder-boeck.... Haerlem:Passchier van Westbusch.

Wagner P. (1976). Puritan attitudes towards physicalrecreation in 17th century New England.J sport history, 3, 139-151.

61

Ir".

TABLE II* TYPDLOSY OF FOLK GAMES IN FLANDERS(Ranson & Smulders 1978, 1979, 1981)

MAIN HEADINGS SUBHEADINGS

1. BALL GAMES 1. Handball gases

2. Bat-and-ball games3. Football4. Others...

2. BOWLING GAMES 1. Bowls

2. Pins3. Bat-and-bowl4. Others...

3. ANIMAL GAMES 1. Baiting

2. Fights and competitions3. Trapping gases

4. Others...

4. SHOOTING GAMES 1. Longbow

2. Cross-bow3. Ball-bow4. lulverin5. Rifle6. Others...

5. FIGHTING GAMES 1. Fencing & tilting

2. Wrestling3. Others...

6. LOCOMOTION GAMES 1. Without device (Swimming...)

2. With device(Sand-yachting, skating...)

3. Others...

7. THROWING GAMES I. Discs, coins

2. 'Struifvogel'3. Darts4. Sticks5. Others...

8. PARTY GAMES 1. Board gases

2. Table games3. Parlour gases4. Others...

9. CHILDERN'S GAMES &FESTIVAL GAMES

63

TABLE IIIITYPOLOOY FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF CHILDREN'S GAMES(De Clerq 19801 Smulders e.a. 1982)

4.MAIN HEADINGS 8411HEADINOS

1. BALL GAMES 1. With hands2. With bat3. With feet4. Others...

2. BAWLING GAMES 1. Marbles2. Bowls

3. Others...3. THROWING GAMES A. Without propelling artefact:

1. Coins, discs2. Knives3. Sticks4. Others...

B. With propelling artefact:1. Bow

2. Gun

3. Spin-tops4. Others...

4. LOCOMOTION GAMES A. Without devices1. Running2. Jumping3. Hopping4. Others...

B. With device:1. Skating2. Stilts3. Others...

5. FORMATION GAMES 1. Circle2. Row3. Others...

h. PARTY GAMES 1. Board (checkers,nine men's Norris)

2. Table (cards ...)3. Parlour4. Others...

7.FIL:HTING GAMES 1. Interindividual2. Between groups3. Others...

B. ANIMAL GAMES 1. Baiting2. Fights and competitions

between animals3. Trapping games4. Others...

64

locomoon

fightingti

animal

shooting

CHART I:

ball

throwing1/7

bowl

'DICE-BOX !ADEL' OF THE TYPOLOGY OF FOLK GAMES IN FLANDERS

(RENSON i SMOLDERS 1978, 1979, 1981)

65

locomotion

CHART II :

party

'DICE-BOX MODEL' OF THE TYPOLOGY OF CHILDREN'S

GAMES IN FLANDERS (DE CLERCK 1980 : SMULDERS E.A. 1982)

1 66

Ivan Ivit

EXPERIENCES OF THE RESEARCH 80 FAR DONE ONTRADITIONAL CHILDREN'S GAMES

This report does not have the character of a ge-neral overview of the experiences so far obtain-ed, but ii written for the needs of the "Belgra-de-ONEP Project on Traditional Children's Oases':it represents a part of the preparations forfield-work on the collection of games and is toserve as a cause for discussion between the par-ticipants in the Project cbaiall fro. differentcountries.

The reflection of several years about the meaning ofan international project of collecting traditionalchildren's games, the acquaintance with literature inthis fields and preliminary research in various partsof Yugoslavia allow us to define the phenomenon oftraditional children's games, on one side, and to re-flect on some practical problems of such an interna-tional endeavour,' on the other.

1.Traditional children's gamest does their collectionand revival make sense

1.1. Following the ideas of M. Bahtin (Bahtin, 1778),we believed that, in order to understand tra-ditional children's games, we need to view them as aspecial form of the folk culture. Bahtin defines the4olk culture primarily as opposed to the written,official and formalized culture. The foundation of

1 In our work so far, we have benefitted greatly from a visitby Professor Brian Sutton -Smith (University of Pennsylvania,Philadelphia, USA), who spent two weeks at the Institute ofPsychology in Belgrade in November, 1984. During that visit, wehave had ample opportunity to discuss the problems related toour Project. Professor Sutton-Smith's experience in research,which he unselfishly conveyed to us, was of considerable help.

67

67

every culture; including thus understood folk cul-ture, is formed by the basic conceptions about theworld, life and man.

Contrary to the analytic and discoursive nature ofthe official culture, the folk culture is characte-rized by a synthetic nature and unity. (Talking aboutone form of, this culture, Bahtin says: "... it allowsthe various to be united and the far away to becomenear, it helps to liberate from the dominantconception of the world, from every relativity, frombanal truths, from everything ordinary, known, gene-rally accepted, it allows the world to be seen in a

new way, the interconnection of everything thatexists and the possibility of an entirely new worldorder to be felt" - Bahtin, 1978, p.43). This holdsfor the philosophy embodied in the folk culture as a

whole. Time in such a philosophy is cyclic, life anddeath are not absolute antipode, but touch in thecontinuous process of disappearance and renewal.

Man is understood together with his physical andsensual nature, and there are no mediators betweenman and the physical reality: man is firmly rooted innature, and there are no barriers or distance betweenmen. The basic activity of such a man is practical.Therefore, there is no division between participatorsand spectators in the folk culture (e.g., in festi-vals, carnivals, rituals, etc.), everyone partici-pates actively in cultural happenings. Implicit know-ledge, practical and life sKills are therefor.: thebasic components of this culture (as opposed to abs-tract schemes of knowledge and the body of syste-matized information of the official written culture).

Children's folklore is doubtlessly, both by originand by nature, an integral part of the so de- finedfolk culture. That is why it bears all the es-sential characteristics of the folk culture. Basi-cally, folklore, which has originated in a long his-tory and taken as a is a manifestation of thenatural richness of the child's being: its physical,.corporal, motor, sensory, intellectual, emotional,and social potential. As the expression of thechild's potentials, children's folklore is in itsnature most often a form of art. The implications of

68

this fact are very important for the understanding ofchildren's folklore and its ap: Iication in educa-tion (they exclude literal interpretation, simplifiedpedagogization, etc.).

Traditional (or folk) children's games dealt withby the Belgrade-ONEP Project, are, of course, onlyone kind of children's folklore and the popularculture in general.

1.2. Because of their nature and heterogeneity, itis quite difficult to give a definition of theconcept of traditional children's games. Instead ofattempting d strict logical definition of traditionalchildren's games as a form of the folk culture on thebasis of serious theoretical considerations, we shallundertake here a more modest task: we shall try tostate some initial defining properties of those cate-gories of traditional children's games which we aregoing to collect in different countries. Finally, anoperational definition, which is going to help us tocollect approximately the same forms of children'sfolklore in the different countries, is expected toensue from an intercultural discussion of the parti-cipants in the Project. For the meaning of the sin-tagm "traditional chilaren's games" is not the samein every culture. So, we open the question: what is"traditional" (ana is it synonimous to "folklore",what is "children's", and what is "game"? Instead ofattempting to find a formal-logical definition, whichis not appropriate to this case, we have tried to de-fine the kind of children's folklore which we shallbe collecting in our Project is the following man-ners: a) using opposition' (traditional vs. moderngames, children's vs. adult games), b) using negativedefinition (we shall not collect children's songs,formalized sport games, folk dances for children,etc.), c) citing positive examples of categories ofgames and individual games, d) a long list of broaderand narrower categories of games which interest us,as well as those belonging to borderline caLegories,so that in discussion we could decide together whichof these categories we shall collect and which not.The entire procedure of the gradual identiFication of

69

(.0 69

..=.,

the categories.of games which interest us is given inAppendix 1. Here, we shall only give a summarized de-scription, rather than a definiton, of the kinds of

games we suggest be collected in the field-work. Wewould, therefore, like to make as complete as pos-sible an inventory of children's games with ruleswhich are a part of the folk culture (and not insti-tutionalized and organized amusements and free time),in which the child actively employs his physical,motor, sensory, intellectual, emotional and socialabilities. Such a definition excludes the pure formsof adult play, modern games, folk and other creationsfor children in which they are not, however, activebut are rather listeners or spectators; this alsoexcludes the pure forms of folk dances from thechildren's musical folklore and pure categories of

children's sport (in order to avoid misunderstanding,take note of the fine points of AF endix 1).

1.3. Even so :educed, the category of children'straditional games is very rich and varied. This isevidenced by the anthologies of such games so farpublished (both new and old) and all the preliminaryinventories of games published in the preparatoryphases of the Project. The richoess of these games isalready evident in their number. Thus Opie and Opie(1969) have an index of 2500 games (and their varie-ties), Sutton-Smith recorded (1972) more than 300games in New Zealand, and Renson (1981), recordinggames of a narrower group than defined here in vari-ous parts of Flanders, obtainea 95-233 protocols ofdifferent games, or 806 protocols in total; in olderpublished collections of games in Yugoslavia, wefound 300-400 games, the preliminary incomplete in-ventories done in Yugoslavia on smaller territories(one or several villages) regularly yield more than100 games, etc.

The wealth and variety of traditional children'sgames is reflected in the number of categories of

.se games. As an illustration, we shall list onlysome of the categories: bouncing games, clappinggames, walking games, counting rhymes, tongue--tmisters, mocking rhymes, riddles, funny rhymes,

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70

chasing games, catching games, hiding games, duellinggames, games of competition, jumping games, games ofwit.-of expression, strength, agility, chance, humor,disguising, daring, kissing, games for expressingsympathy, etc.

From the previous list and unsystematic ennumera-tion, one can discern the psychological richness ofthese games: all cognitive, conative, and affectivepsychological functions me expressed in them. Forthe purposes of our project, the developmental hete-rogeneity of these games is equally important: thereare those meant for preverbal children, and those foradolescents.

It is particularly important for an internationaland intercultural Project, as this is, that all thecollections of games so far published in differentcountries show that, beside the games which areuniversal, there is cultural variety: every culturehas some kinds of games which are specifically itsown.2 This variety of games in different cocntrils,which will be stressed with the compilation of :om-

plete anthologies in a number of countries, willserve as an excellent basis for interculturalexchange.

1.4. The facts cited it out the richness and va-riety of traditional children's games evoke the com-plex theoretical problem concerning the classifica-tiun of games. The analysis of the nature of thesegames and the elaboration of a system for their clas-sification are important and indispensable tasks,both for the understanding of their nature and forthe consideration about a possible revival of tradi-tional games and their employment in the education ofcontemporary children.2

2 For a confirmation of this fact, see UNICEF's Jeux du ond"(Editions LIED, Geneve, 1979), or UNESCO's publication

"L'enfant et le Jeu', Etudes at docusenii, No. 34, f is, 1979.3 At this meeting, D. Baran !Canada) will give us a review of

the systems of classification of gam, and present the

Quebecois model of game analysis.

71

71.

As is known, systems of classification of child-ren's games already exist. However, for the needs ofour Project, it will be necessary to make a selectionof theca systems, adapt them to the needs of the Pro-ject, as wall as to elaborate certain specific sys-tems of classification. The problems of classifica-tion of traditional games will be solved methodicallyin later phases of the Project, because their solu-tion depends on the body of empirically gatheredgames, which is particularly important when we aredealing with games from different cultures.

However, it is already necessary to begin ourjoint effort at thinking about the problems of clas-sification of the collected games. Itseems inevi-table for these classifications to bemultiple, de-duced on the basis of different criteria, while eachOf them in a unique way discovers the nature and,hence, the possible ways of application of traditio-nal children's games.

The following will serve as criteria for classifi-cation:

- the' content of games (chasing, seeking, hun-ting, games, etc:, as in the'book by Opie and Opie,1969);

- the psychological functions employed in thegame (games of motor and intellectual skill, games ofhumor and social interaction, games of perception,memory or speech, etc.);

social functions of games (games primarilystimulating social integration, or social differen-tiation and individualization4; games of coopera-tion vs. games of competition, etc.);

psycho-developmental criteria (i.e., a clas-sification derived from the developmIntal stage ofthe psychological functions employed in the game, as,for example, sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete--operational games, according to Piaget's theory; de-velopmental classification derived from other theo-rieE, of psychological development are also possible);

See 57e (1982).

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72

- the structure of games as a criterion forclassification opens complex problems, but also al-lows various classifications of children's games;some existing systems, such as those ..n which gamesare divided into games of skill vs. games of chance,or games of competition, duelling, vs. games of co-operation and expression, etc., are very fruitful,but must be supplemented by other classificationsbased on the structure of games, such as classifi-cations based on the presence of symbolic componentsor the type and nature of symbolic systems employed,or classifications based on the nature of the drama-tic turns of the game (peripethy-climax-resolution),or some sort of composition and/or game rethoric,etc.

1.5. The collection of anthologies of traditio-nal children's games opens up complex problems of therevival of this form of folk culture and itsintroduction into the lives of contemporary children.How much sense does such an endeavour make, and whatars the risks of deforming the nature of the games?

Of course, the problem of the revival of traoitio-nal children's games is only a special aspect of thebroader problem concerning the. attitude toward cultural tradition. Therefore, it is possible to considerthe experiences of the revival attempts of other4orms of folk culture. As is well known, such attemp-ts at revival can bring about a total loos of meaningof once meaningful cultural form, as, for example,when organized tourist attractions are supposed torevive some ancient rituals. The deformation hereconsists in the imitation of the outward aspects ofthe ritual, without understanding its essence and itsrelatedness to the lives of the people from previousages.

On the other hand, the revivals are sometimes ex-tremely successful (e.g., folk dance and sony). Asuccessful revival generally takes two forms: eitherthe original form is used, or there is a successfulartistic transformation which possesses elements ofmodernization, but preserves the spirit of the oldcultural creation.

73

," 73

In the attempt to revive traditional children'sgames, the basic problem is also in that these gameswere closely interkni,t with the lives of the adultsand the c;.'ldren at the time when they came into be-ing, as well as with the ecological conditions inwhich they took place (e.g., great open country areasor city squares with no traffic, etc.). Besides, inrevival, the mechanism of survival and transmissionof games changes drastically. Traditional transmis-sion rested on an almost Darwinian principle of natu-ral selections what was an unsuccessful creation justdisappeared. Shifting to the preservation of tradi-tional children's games in written documents (antho-logies, etc.) and to their dissemination throughbooks) and institutions (schools, kindergartens,etc.), these selective mechanisms disappear.

The critical reappraisal of traditional children'sgames, based in part on the analyses we have mentio-ned in the previous section, would be the basicmethod of avoiding the possible deformations in re-vival. For, it is certain that among traditionalgames there are meaningless to contemporary childrenbecause they were too much a reflection of the lifein earlier historical epochs; some games cannot berevived because there are no conditions for that interms of spaces some games are .such in their naturethat they are in profound contradiction with the con-temporary conceptions of many cultures (e.g., extre-mely aggressive games, games which segregate thesexes in a pronounced way, etc.).

However, traditional children's games have quali-ties which are capable of satisfying to a great ex-tent the developmental needs oz contemporary child-ren. Their huge value is in that they hold rich pos-sibilities for the stimulation of various activitiesin children. physical, motor, sensory, social, affec-tive, intellectual, linguistic...

The potential of these games to evoke variousactivities in children is particularly important forchildren in contemporary conditions of life?: thesegames with lottl of motor activity are a true therapyfor adynamia (a deficit in motion), which afflictsmany city children, while games involving the body

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74

and the senses (vertigo games, tickling games, touch-ing games, kissing games, etc.) are good therapy forthe excessive intellectualization of most activitiesin school-type ch'Idren's institutions; group games(both games of competition and cooperation, and gamesof expression) are helpful in overcoming the socialisolation of masses of contemporary children.

Therefore, it is possible to find a healthy basisfor the introduction of traditional children's gamesinto the lives of contemporary children. In manycases, all that is necessary is to preserve the ori-ginal form of the game (as a successful example, wemay cite a collection of games o interaction betweenmother and infant).8 At times, it will be necessaryto enter certain transformations and reinterpreta-tions into the games (i.e., aggresive games whichwere once preparation for batle can be transformedinto games of full motor involvement, etc.).

Therefore, if the nature of traditional ,games isunderstood properly, their revival is possible andcan also contain transformation and adaptation tocontemporary conditions. (changed ecologic'al condi-tions, different play materials, transfer into othermedia, etc.), under the condition that the basicmeaning of the game is presreved, as well as theirproperty of eliciting various children's activities.

One of the basic social and social-psychologicalproblems in the future (which has begun in some coun-tries already) will be that of free time (due to thedevelopment of technology, robotizatioh, etc.). It

seems to us that all ludique experience of the peoplefrom various cultures will be necessary for the solu-tion of this problem by giving meaning to people'slives. Traditional children's games are a part of

this ludique heritage of mankind and, therefore,their preservation gains additional meaning.

e "Children's Games", Children's Media Laboratory, Child Study

Unit, National Council of Educational Research and Training,

New Delhi.

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1.6. The pedagogizetion of ploy i.e., the use oftraditional children's games in a purely scholasticmanner is most certatinl a form of deformation ofthese games. Still, we believe that it makes sense tospeak of the educational use of these games, and notonly of their revival. The basic Justification forsuch an employment of traditional games is in thatthey are growth prompting activities in a real sense.As such, these games do contain educationalcontents, methods and means, and in the form of an-thologies represent a readily applicable instrumentfor direct work with children for the educators.

Anthologies cf traditional children's games, whenused for educational purposes (by parents, teachers,educators, in work with migrant children, etc.), be-long to the educational instruments which can be usedto develop non-institutional, alternate forms of edu-cation which is deeply related to the local andnational caltural traeition.

Summarizing the experiences of the research so fardone on traditional children's games, we can confi-dently say that the endeavour of collecting thesegames is fully Justified.

When all inventory of these games is made in anumber of countries according to a uniform metho-dology, it will be possible to make regional, natio-nal, international, and thematic anthologies ofgames, which will be anthologies destined for use bychildren of all ages. These anthologies would be areal treasury of the ludique experience of mankind.

Beside the anthologies, other forms of revival oftraditional children's games will also be possiblethanks to the collection of games: the formation ofcenters (some sort of live museums) in which tradi-tioral games and toys will be used in a thoughtfulway; numerous games will be transformed into newelectronic media (video and computer games inspiredby traditional games, which would enrich the reper-toire of games); numerous traditional games with the

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play materials can be produced commercially using newmaterials and new technologies, etc.

2. Practical problems of the Project

This section of the paper refers to practical prob-lems of the project which will be discussed at aninternational meeting which should result in a work-ing agreement about the collection of traditionalgames in all the countries collaborating on theProject.

2.1. Sources of information in the collection ofgames are the following: bibliographic research.adults and children as informers, and the observationof children.

It would be most rational to begin with biblio-graphic research, i.e., with collection of books andmagazines, mostly from earlier dates, which alreadyhave many games published. Experience tells us thatthe sources of this kind are numerous. A particularvalue of these sources, _specially those of earlydates, in that one can find in them already forgottengames and can reconstruc' the history of some gamesin a given culture. Their misgiving, on the otherhand, is that they often do not hold all the neces-sary information. Therefore, itwill be necessary toget additional information frog informers.

Children and adults appear as informers. Our expe-rience shows that elderly people (the grandparent ge-neration) is gener'lly a richer source than youngerpeople, and that richer repretoire of games can befound in village and small-town settings where therehaven't been any sudden changes (e.g., due to indus-trialization). Also, in every country, certain cultu-res and social groups are better at safekeeping tra-ditional children's games than others; it seems thatfemale informers are better than male ones; that cer-tain professional groups (preschool and school-teach-ers, sports professionals, workers in areas of child-ren's culture, etc.) are more prone to safekeep andcollect children's games on their own.

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By observing children in various conditions, wecan obtain a considerably 'smaller number of games.However, this source is valuable, as it shows whichgames have spontaneously survived, and these are, asa rule, the culturally, psychologically and educati-onally more valuable games. Besides, playing practiceis better to demonstrate the nature of a game thenthe descriptiOn of its rules (e.g., the same game,when played by boys and girls, has a variously ag-gressive character, etc.).

2.2. CollectorsThe proffesions which have so far been the mostinvolved in collecting gaMes- were folklorists,-Ethnologists, anthropologists, ethno-Musicologists,pqdagogues, psychologists, teachers,' and preschdoleducators. It is wise, therefore, to enga- -thesesame professionsin our Projett, as they haVe the duemotivation. Also, we should depend a great-deal onstudents who are preparing for the teaching 'profes-sions. It would be sufficient if'they would make aninventory of the games in their respective birth--places.

2.3. The organizatiOn'of the researchThe following institutions may appear as organizersof the research: National Committees of the OMEP,'teachers' faculties and academies, professionalsocieties (folklorists, ethnologists, psychologists,etc.), centers '-f-or the research of folklore andtradition, research institutions, etc.

2.4. The recording of gimesIn the documents prepared for the Conference there isa protocol for the collection of games, in two forms(made'by A. Marjano:fid). This protocol, after beingdiscussed and finally shaped, shoUld serve for theverbal uiscriptions of the games.

In the recording, of games, it will also 'be neces-sary to make sketches (e.g., of toys, play"spacet,etc.), photographs (of to0, playgrounds, key Momentsin the game), an auditory recording if possible(especially for the registration of the rhythmic-

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-musical components of the game), ,, video or filmrecording (of the course of the gam.); whenever pos-sible, samples of the original playing material oughtto be collected.

It is very use4u1 to make a card-file of the col-lected games (in the form of catalogue, biblio-graphic, or computer sheets) in order to have aneasier overview and classification of games.

APPENDIX 1This appendix has the sole purpose to serve as abasis for the discussion about the categories ofgames which will be collected in the Project.

1. Play and non-play behaviorIs it possible to clearly differentiate play fromnon-play forms of behavior in various cultures?

2. Adult play and children's playThis Project will focus on children's own games;games will be collected which have been independantlyand on their own initiative elaborated by children.Therefore, play as an autonomous childhood activityis in the focus.

However, in many cultures and certain situations,is it possible to differentiate children's play andadult play?

It is absolutely certain that such a differentia-tion is not possible at an early aga (3 -4 years).

Therefore, our Project should also include gamesof interaction between adults and children of youngages, such as bouncing games, clapping games, tick-ling games, etc. As an example, we may cite theIndian collection "Children's Games".

3. Other forms of children's folklore and traditionalchildren's gamesCultural creations for children, such as fairy tales,fables, folk-tales, etc., are outside the scope ofour Project.

Children's folk-songs in their pure form do notbelong to the category of traditional children's

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games which wa are collecting in this Project. Natu-rally, numerous traditional children's games have arhythmic-musical component !counting rhymes or chantsas part of a more complex game, etc.), and in thesecases, they will be registrated.

It is similar with childron's sport games. Pureforms of formalized and institutionalized sport games(soccer, etc.) do not belong to the-category of gamescollected in this Project. However, the category ofgames we are collecting does include competing gameswith motoric components (all games of skill and deft-ness, etc.) which are traditional (old) and have notbeen transformed into modern forms of sport games.

4. tames with rules and symbolic gamesAt the focus of our project we basically have gameswith rules (from the most simple ones such as clap-ping games, to those with very complex implicitrules),. Symbolic games (in the sense of improvisedsymbolic games) do not belong to the circle of col-lected games. However, many games with rules containelements of symbolic games (masks, disguise, role--playing, symbolic gestures, etc.), and such complexgames with rules which contain symbolic components doenter the category of collected games.

5. In summaryWe wruld, therefore, like to make as complete aninveittory is possible of children's games with ruleswhich form a part of the folk culture (and not insti-tutionalized and organized amusements and free time)in which the child actively engages all his physical,motor, sensory, intellectual, emotional and socialabilities.

6. In order to facilitate the definition of thecategories of games which we are collecting in thisProject, we give here a list of traditional games(which has no ambition to be a logical classifica-tion) which may be registered. In this manner, we maycome to some sort of definition by ennumeration of

the categories of play or individual games.

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We suggest that the list include the followinggames (or even some games not on this list, which are

!.. borderline cases):

bouncing gamesclapping gamestickling gamesmocking rhymesennumerating rhymestongue-twisterscounting-out rhymesriddlesconundremspunstales which never endcircular talestongue-sticking gamestangletalddaring gamesbetsdialogue gamesseeking gameshiding gamesguessing gameskissing gameslove gamegames of control (no movement of laughing allowed)finger, hand and toe gamesgames of eliminationchasing gamessinging gamesnonsense rhymesimproper gamesduelling gamesgames of intimidationgames of expressiondisguising gamescompeting gamesgames of cooperationgames of chancegames of witgames of humor

P.

1,, s:,..,8i

games of agility (physical, motor, perceptive,linguistic, intellectual)games of perceptiongames of memorylanguage gamesgames of communicationgames of interaction

etc.

REFERENCES

Bahtin. M. (1978). Stvaralattvo F. Rablea i narodnakuitura Srednjeg veka i Renesanse (Creativity ofF. Rabelais and folkculture of Middle Ages andRenaissance). Beograd: Nolit.

Bruner, J., Jolly, A. & Sylva, K. (Eds.). (1976).Play: its role in development and evolution.Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

Cailloise, R. (1956). Les jeux et les hommes. Paris:Gallimar.

Ivid, I. (1983). Les acivites ludique des enfantsdans les cultures differentes. Droit a l'en-fance. Bruxelles: OMEP Beige.

Opie, I. & Opie, P. (1969). Children's games instreet and playground. Oxford: Oxford Uni-versity Press.

Propp, V. (1976). Foljklor i dejstviteljnost(Folklore and reality). Moskva.

Sutton-Smith, B. (1972). Folkgames of children.Austin-London: University of Texas Press.

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Ivan Ivid

THE PLAY A2TIVITIES OF CHILDREN IN DIFFERRENTCULTURESI

The universal Aspects and the CulturalPeculiarities

A plea for an international endeavor of preparinganthologies of the games of different peoples.

This report has been conceived as a departure pointfor the consideration, inside the OMEP, of the waysto be taken in the collection, selection, revalori-zation, reinterpretation, and finally, the publica-tion of the traditional games of various peoples, aswell as in their educational application in contempo-rary conditions.

The following general idea had motivated the pro-ject on game anthologies: every people (social orcultural group), every ethnic group, possesses awealth of experience in the matters of education.

It is fair to say that a great part of each cul-ture is devoted to children: the literature forchildren, both oral and written (tales, etc.),children's dances and songs, as well as the educati-onal practices transmitted from one generation toanother, the general knowledge (usually in the formof practical knowhow) pertaining to the bringarq upof children, etc. ...

Traditional. games (mostly games of rule), thepractice and knowledge of games, generally form anintegral part of a culture. However, this culturalheritage isn't recorded,' and is in a real danger ofdisappearing of weakening.

This state of affairs brings a task for the OMEP,which would fit quite well into its general rilssion:to inspire the member countries, on one side, and

I Very few countries are implementing this record, at leastpartly. See: Sutton-Smith, B. (1972), for New Zealand, andBpi', I. & Bpi', P. (1972), for Great Britain.

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other international organizations (UNESCO, UNICEF,ICCP), on the other, to an international endeavorwhich would consist in the collection, analysis, andpublication of anthologies of games.2

Having in mind the scope of this project, it wouldbe necessary to seriously consider its significancebefore actually undertaking it. In our opinion, thereare sufficient reasons to motivate such an undertak-ing, wereof we shall mention only the most funda-mental:

1) the safeguard of an important component of

every culture;2) the publication of game anthologies could de-

monstrate the wealth of all the culture, and couldserve as a point of departure for an internationalexchange which every cultural group could participatein equally;

3) tne publication of game inventories (followedby pedagogic commentaries) would provide educatorswith a new means of education, precious and useful inthe affirmation of the cultural identity of thechild; etc.

The general characteristics of traditional gamesIn the general literature of play (Hcizinga, Cail-lois. etc.), definitions of the Homo 1Jdens can befour, the distinctive characteristics of play, andtypologies of games - perticularly the one formulatedby R. Caillois (1958).

The authors belonging to the school of psychoana-lysis (Erikson, Hartley, M. Klein) have partly cla-rified the functions of play in relation to the indi-vidual (catharsis, Cie expression and the control of

pulsions, etc.).For our purpose, the. psycho-genetic studies are

more important (Piaget, Chateau, Vigotsky, Elkonine).

2 This idea came to beeing inside the NEP some years ago.

Following UNESCO's project which resulted in the publ,cation,

The Child and Play, (Etudes it documents d'education, no. 34,

UNESCO, 1979), ONEP's project Anthology of games could be

considered as the lequel and extension of the UNESCO's

publicc_on.

1019,1,' Aor

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These studies have elucidated the origin, the genesisof play, and its function in ontogenesis. They havealso resulted in the classification of games, whichis extremely useful as an instrument in our work ofcollecting and analyzing games. According to theseontogenetic studies, the games of functional prac-tice, s-mbolic games, and games of rule, all sharecommun ,raits, ha e well defined developmental rela-tionships, and have functions which are partly com-mon, and partly specific.

In addition to the mentioned analyses, there arenew ideas about play which open up fruitful and pro-mising approaches. These new ideas comp from generalsemiology and cultural anthropology.

In the first place, were talking abc_tt a new in-terpretation of the characteristics of play as a dis-tinct activity. At the outset, we shall define thesemiotic status of play: play in itself definitelyappears to us to be a semiotic activity par excel-lence, which employs iconic representation, simu-lacra, and symbols (non-arbitrary signs). The natureitself of play and of the significants utilized inplay defines the crucial point in the relationship ofplay and reality. Play finds its place in tne "areaof play" (Toureh), in a privileged space of sociallycreated make-believe, which is the space in which theHomo ludens is expressed, as opposed to the Homofader.

The traditional children's games (a oreat part ofthem being oam ,s of rule) share these general seri-otic traits, but preserving notable specific charac-teristics. Piaget once said that these games "consti-tute admirable social ,hstitutions" (1932). Ontogene-tically, these games have their origin in repeti-tion, and in the ritualization of actions in functio-nal games (Piaget, 1932), as well as, more directly,in a kind of symbolic play named dramatic (or sa'io-dramatic) play, in which the child, beginning fromthe age of 2 or 3, assumes the roles of differentpersons and tries tc behave in accordance with theseroles. Even here, therefore, there are rules whichconduct the child's activities, as for example, whenthe child is playing mother who Is taking care of her

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ao.s......nokrortutlit,=1111M

baby, it has tc follow the norms and rules of mater-nal behavior.

This origin of development is analyzed in parti-cular by Elkonine (1978). The double origin (theritualization of the first functional practices, onthe one side, and the assumption of roles in symbo-lical games, on the other) is also evident in tradi-tional games of rule. Preserving the general charac-teristics of play activities, the traditional gamescould be classified into two large categories, accor-ding to semiotic criteria:

a) the games of functional practice (the prac-tice or exercise can be sensory, motor, psychomotor,intellectual, language, social, etc.);

b) games of rule, with an important semioticcomponent, i.e., games which contain representations("secondary realities"), symbols, masks, role-play-ing, mime and simulacra (both in one category, accor-ding to Caillois), symbolic obJe:ts, metaphorical andmetonymical means, etc.

The function of traditional gamesTraditional games in the two mentioned categoriestake place in the "area of play", which implies anecessary signalization (metasignalization) relatingto play. Actually, from a semiotic point of view,child's play is in itself a message, reading: "We'rechildren (and not adults), this is.play (not activityin reality).".Therefore, by the pragamtic analysis, i.e., the semi-otic analysis of the functions of traditional games,we come to the conclusion that the games are a formof communication (inside the children's group, butalso between the children's grout, and the adult soci-ety), a type of social practice the children par-take in, and a regulatory mechanism for the socialrelationships inside the children's group, as well asbetween the children's group and the social communitywhich the group is a part of.

The activity of play as a message (addressed pri-marily to adults) permits the children to enter the"area of play", depending on a repertory of means ofn.etasignalization: the choice of places which are set

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aside for play, the use of toys, words and riteswhich announce the commencement of play, etc.

By entering the area of play" (which is, we mustinsist once again, formed by the culture and thesocial group), the child gains greater liberty andindependence; consequently, the "area of play" is thespace of the child's true praxis, of his socialpractice. Furthermore, it is the true culture ofchildren and youth (the peer-culture) which hasirreplacable functions in development.

In general, there are two major functions to befulfilled by traditional children's games, as far asthese are the regulating mechanisms in social rela-tions.s These two major functions, vital for thefunctioning and the preservation of every culture,are social integration (i.e., the assimilation ofgroup members, the submission to rules, social norms,etc.) and differentiation (i.e., increasing dis-tance between group members, the segregation of sub--groups, individualization, personalization, etc.).

The function of social integration fulfilled bythe games of functional practice is obvious, as thispractice is always the means of its effects, prepa-ration for the participation in adult life.

Examples of this kind of preparation for socialintegration are the? games of motor and mental skill,manual dexterity, motor and sensory precision, ofwit, language capacities and communicative competen-ce, logic,, etc. Other examples are: following of ru-les by every person and the submission to the group;joint activities, which imply the coordination of in-dividual actions (e.g., every separate team in gamesof competition has to have such coordination, basedalso on efficient communication); self-control, thecontrol of the personal desires and impulses (the de-lay of satisfaction, etc.) which conflict with therules of the game (e.g. the "Laughter-control Game");

3 Here we're following the ideas formulated by a Soviet authorin relation to the semiotic analyses of rituals. An essay onthe semiotic analysis of ritual, in Semiology and the Problemsof Communication, Th' Armenian Academy of Sciences, Erevan,1981.

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the distribution of roles in a game (by counting off,or some kind of drawing) implies an egalitarianmorale, which gives every group-member an equalchance and contributes to group cohesion.

The function of differentiation is obvious in playactivities. Play often functions as a true"institution of transgression" (therefore, as a se-curity vent), as in the games of logical absurdity,the verbal games in which the meaning of words istwisted and their pronounciation deformed (e,g., theYugoslav game of "Telephones in Disorder")."

Personalization is obvim's in the games of prac-ticing certain roles (the role of team-leader, thenegative role which everyone tries to avoid in games,the winner or loser role in the games of competition,with the mastery of the feelings of triumph and de-feat). The segregation of subgroups is obvious in thevery phenomenon of child's play, which separates thechildren from the adults, in the separation of theboy's and girl's games, as well as in the games ofrule which offer the possibility of choice based onthe affection between the boys and the girls (as inthe Yugoslav game "Now We See Who's in Love").

The semiotic analyses (semantic and pragmatic)suggest that in the phase of collection of the gamesit is necessary to pay attention to the data whichuncovers the semiotic, social, and communicative as-pects of play (the utilization of symbolic objects,masks, role-playing, magic words and interdictivewords, symbolic gestures, etc.). In outlining the re-corded games it is necessary to lean on the classifi-cations of the implicit functions of games, such aswe have briefly presented here, as analytical instru-ments of utmost importance.

The mentioned analyses permit us to uncover theuniversal aspects of traditional gamer, (the "area ofplay", the general semiotic status of play as q means

Similar ideas were disclosed by M. J. Sisgard (Denmark), inpersonal zoseunication.

We have based these analyses on the preliminary research ongames in the various regions of Yugoslavia. We were helped inthe research by Mrs. Duran, Hadjihuseinov and Mr. Yuri.

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of communication, as social praxis, and as a regula-tory mechanism), but also disclose the cultural pe-culiarities. The distance between play and realityisn't the same in all the cultures, and it is oftendifficult to distinguish play from practical activi-ty. Peculiarities are evident in the extent to whichobjects (toys) are used, in the frequency of play ingeneral, as well as in the respective frequency ofthe various games of functional exercise (motc..r gamesas compared to games of wit, sensory vs. intellectualgames, games of skill vs. games of functional and af-fective pleasure, competitive vs. cooperative games,etc.). The differences are even greater with regardto the utilization of play as a regulating mechanismin social relationships: in some cultures. the accentin social regulation is placed upon social integra-tion, wnile in others, it is the differentiation andindividualization which are accentuated. Therefore, acatalogue of the games of different social and cul-tural communities could be used as an extremely pro-ductive instrument in the analysis of cultural pecu-liarities.

The educational implementation of traditional gamesFrom the point of view outlined here, educational im-plementation of traditional games would seem promi-sing. It has been partly verfied in practice.' Na-turally, educational implementation has to be prece-ded by consideration, analysis, and educational reva-lorizatian. A good time for such reflexion comesafter the collection of these games.

Right at the beginning, we could formulate somepreliminary remarks. It was not a nostalgia for thepast which has motivated the project of game antho-logies, but the certainty that each cultural tradi-tion possesses a certain wisdom, as a mechanism oflong-term selection underlies cultural acquisition,including children's games. As these aspects of cul-ture are transmitted by tradition (without writtendocuments), and as there was accelerated social

See the already mentioned document of the UNESCO, The Childand Play.

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change in the past century, there was a break in thetransmission. Hence the necessity .For the conscioussafeguarding and reevaluation of tradition.

A reevaluation would also imply a departure fromtraditions. Where traditional games are concerned,for example, it would seem necessary to revise thevery strict segregation between boys and girls, etc.

As to the positive aspects of traditional games,we felt it was justified to formulate the followinghypotheses:

a) the play activities are in their very naturethe"basis of a pedagogy of play, which has to bepreserved in contemporary education;

b) play as a component of the peer-culture, as thetrue social praxis, cannot be totally replaced by thescholastic education, where the child-adultrelationships dominate;

c) traditional games could serve as the educatio-nal medium for the rennovation of such a pedagogy,based on the praxis of the children themselves, inthe preschool institutions and the schools (e.g., onecould employ the counting-off procedures in the dis-tribution of roles and tasks inside the classroom),as well as in the street, the vard, nature-studyclasses, on vacation, etc.;

d) traditional games are an educational mediumwhich bears the peculic, ty of a culture, and is,consequently, very appropriate for the preservationof the cultural idertity of the children, in the faceof the uniformities of modern education (in their owncountries, in the education of immigrant children,etc.);

e) some of the characteristics of traditionalgames (play as the social practice of children, thefrequency of motor games, the employment of all thesenses - not only sight and huaring, the frequent oc-casion for' bodily contact in the traditional games,etc.) make these games suitable for guarding off, atleast partially, the severe deprivations that thechildren suffer in urban surroundings: a lack ofbodily contact, social contact, motor activity, etc.You may compare traditional games to video-games, in

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order to get an idea of the possibilities for theeducational employment of the traditional games.

REFERENCES

Beart, C. (1955). Jeux et iouetts de l'Ouest afri-cain. Dakar: IFAN.

Caillois, H. (1958). Les ieux et lens hommes. Paris:Gallimard.

Chateau, J. (1955). Le jeu de l'enfant apres troisans. Paris: Vrin.

L'enfant et le jeu. Etudes et documents d'educa-tion, no. 34. Paris: UNESCO, 1979.

L'enfant en Afrique et ses ieux. Dossiers pedago-gigues. Paris: ANDECAM, 1973.

Elkonine, D. B. (1978). The Psychology of Play. (InRussian). Moscow: Pedagogika.

Opie, I. & Opie, P. (1969). Children's Games inStreet and Playground. Oxford: Oxford Univer-sity Press.

Piaqet, J. (1932). Le jugement moral chez l'enfant.Paris: Alcas.

Raabe, J. (1972). Le ieu de l'awele. Paris: Ed. de laCourtille.

Sutton-Smith, B. (1972). Folkgames of Children.Austin-London: University of Texas Press.

Victor, P. E. (1940). Jeux d'enfants et d'adulteschez les Esquimo. Meddelelser om Gronlad(Kobenhaven), Bd. 125, no. 7.

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,I=WMM=MMI

Zorica Rajkovid

THE REMARKS OF AN ETHNOLOGISTCONCERNING THE PROJECT dF RESEARCH ON

TRADITIONAL CHILDREN'S GAMES

The research, recording and publishing of traditionalchildren's games is doubtlessly multiply useful. Inour country, extensive systematic research projectswith an elaborated theoretical-methodological ap-proach are almost nonexistent, while that which ispublished is scattered among publ'.cations of localsignificance which are not readily available; therecords differ one from another; and there are norepresentative overviews or selections from the ter-ritory of the entire country or the individual repu-blics. The envisioned anthology (or anthologies)which is to be one of the results of the Project willbe of lasting value as a document about the cultureof previous times, i.e. one of its segments. From theethnological point of view, several impurtant ques-tions concerning this Project need to be raised.

1. Which items are going to he contained in theanthology, i.e., what can be treated as a children'sgame? 0+ course, we are encountering here the com-plex problems of defining the concept, i.e. the syn-tagm, of children's game, as well as the problems ofclassifiction or at least the inventorying of allthe relevant phenomena in the domain of children'splay. In our profession, these phenomena are also de-scribed as children's folklore, the content of whichwas, perhaps unjustifiably, separated. recorded andstudied regardlessly of the unity, i.e. the con- textof play; this used to happen with almost all forms ofso-called verbal folklore (such as mocking rhymes,counting rhymes, riddles, songs), whicr were treatedas phenomena of oral literature or as musical events.On the other hand, the approach that treats phenomenaas a domain of children's folklore has en- abledcontemporary folklorists to deal with them as withcommunicational phenomena, within the general

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approach to folklore as an act of communication andits definition in the social context.'

2. A second important question is posed in rela-tion to the concept of tradition, i.e. the tradi-tional, a concept which seems to be unavoidable inthe title of this Project, i.e. anthology. By desig-nating the cultural phenomena which it deals with astraditional, our ethnology has, in a rather unde-cided manner, limited its interest to a time past,i.e. some older culture, which is generally retreat-ing in the conflict with civilization and urbaniza-tion. Later on, our ethnology has turned to the mo-dern day, especially to problems of cultural change,thus also spreading the research to urban area. Theexpressions tradition and traditional are still usedas referring te the older, the inherited, thetransmitted, but it is generally clear to the ethno-logist that we're dealing with an unprecise notion ofantiquity and that it is impossible to draw a clearlimit between the traditional and the contemporary,the past and the present. Although we know that someof the phenomena in our culture are quite old, thereare very few that we can date precisely, while thedocuments in use (I mean, primarily, published andunpublished records) are generally not older than acentury (not counting archive materials, older traveljournals, and similar sources). The village culture,which is discribed in most ethnological works, is theculture belonging to the past and the beginning ofthis century; the fact that some of its segments areof much earlier origin is a different issue. Conse-quently, this Project, i.e. the anthology, should

See the article: Boikovit-Stulli, N. (1973). 0 pojmovima

useena i putka knJitevnost i njihovim nazivima (On the Con-

cepts of Oral and Folk Literature and Their Names). UmjetnostriJeti, 3, 149-184 and 4, 237-260. Especially on pp. 162- -164,see about the conception of folklore as an act of com-

munication and about the definition of folklore in its social

context, as well as Naja Boikovit-Stulli's definition of folk-lore (the elaborated definition by Dan Ben-Amos): "Folklore isthe artistic communication in a small group with the possibi-lity of relating the told themes and for in a series of smallgroups, thus creating tradition, extended in time and space.'

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include at least an unpretentious explanation of theterm traditional, especially as today's field re-search hardly can cover data from the beginning ofthis century (and this Project also has field re-search in plan). Regretfully, this is not only a ter-minological problem (which would be easy to solve byan explanation of its meaning) but a more profoundone: what is going to be considered tr:Witional, andby which criteria, and what i-l't? Is the generationto whose repertoire a phenomena belongs (e.g., tothat of the grandparents) crucial, is belonging tothe rural milieu going to be decisive, etc.? I willmention that such dilemmas do not appear at all inthe extensive research done on children's folklore insome European countries (e.g., Poland, Germany, Fin-land), but it is generally accepted to study and re-cord the entire repertoire of children's folklore(only its verbal aspects in places) which can befound at the time of the research, whether it is pre-sent among the children or only remembered by eldergenerations. In these works, there is no quet ;tion ofselecting and separating only the ancient, or tradi-tional. Approaching the field work and other researchon children's games in our country, it would bereasonable to decide whetner it would make sense not:to record everything that we have at our disposaltoday, ignoring the segment of living games, i.e. therepertoire of contemporary children. This is espe-cially true considering that the repertoire of con-temporary topics coi.Lained in children's games (the"new" therefore) is not so wide, so that its inclu-sion wouldn't extend the research too much. I wouldalso argue for the recording and the inclusion in theanthology of the so-callad verbal children's folk-lore, as I believe that playing with jestful rhymes,for example, belongs to a broader concept of play,while beiny characteristic for the children's worldand particularly interesting as an expression of`Iildren's creativity. I will note that until now it

was rare to record verbal material which is not"proper" (such as, for example, favorite children'stopics about feces, jokes about parents, etc.), aphenomena we regularly find in contemporary records

of European fortlorists and collectors of children'sgames as typical children's products.

3. The third problem concerns the application,i.e. applicability of the collected material foreducational and other purposes. That is, of course,primarily to be decided about by educationalists andpsychologists, but I would mention that there arecertain doubts in respect to this in the eye of theethnologist. TIe world in which traditional child-ren's games came into existence is significantlydifferent from today's world; the games are a reflec-tion of that world and the way oT life in times past:their contents, terminology, the space and circum-stances under which they were played cannot be trans-ferred to the present. Of course, that does not applyto all games, and some could probably be offered totoday's children, too, with certain explanations andadaptations. A more serious problem, however, is re-lated to the fact that children's play fully livesonly in the communication between children, only ifchildren want it and need it. My humble experiencebased on a modest research conducted in Zagreb 7-8years ago has led me to doubt the existence of a sub-stantial possibility for the application of the play-ing tradition through a pedagogue and the sense of itall. Namely, it was shown that, in spite of excellentwork by the educationalists who offered the childrensubject-matter from the older repertoire of child-ren's games, the children received these passivelyand didn't use them in their free play. Simulta-neously, the children had their own repertoire ofgames which included some of the same types, i e.forms of games (e.g., counting rhymes, rhyme. songscombined with motion) - a repertoire they had notlearnt in an organized manner, but had recieved fromother children in oral and direct communication, ge-nerally through play. This communication was realizedover several generations, meaning that the same orsimilar games are known to a series of generations(while we could lightly dub them "new"!). In parti-cular children's groups, this repertoire wasn't par-ticularly rich, ttt it functioned intensely, it wasin use, and - importantly - the children created and

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recreated it, i.e. they dealt with it actively and

creatively. This very repertoire (in the case of my

research) was unknown to the pedagogues, who failed

to think of asking the children, when they needed a

counting rhyme, for example, for the rhymes they knew

and used in their spontaneous play uncontrolled by

adults.I received the impression that educationalists and

psychologists are skeptical about the contemporary

repertoire of children's games and consider it impo-

verished, the fact is that it does exist as it is,

and that the children need it and we cannot ignore

it. Certain similar contents of play are present

among children today over a broad European territory

(as can be seen in the literature), and are also

known in our country, both in cities and village set-

tings. A minor. comparative research of some of these

(such as songs accompanied by motion and elastic-

-band-jumping) has shown that the same repertoire is

widely spread in our country, but there are signi-

ficant local differences, variations, which bespeak a

creative attitude toward the repertoire. The same

song, for example, is almost unrecognizable in two

different presentations; it is performed in a totally

different manner by children in Zagreb, Teslid, Vis,

Svetozarevo. The differences do not only appear in

the manner of performance but also in the content and

form, which means that these subjects exist as models

with local and individual variations, show ing that

children are active and creative in relation to

play. This Aspect is particularly interesting in

further ethnological and folkloristic research, as

well as the problems of the diffusion of this reper-

toire, the criteria for its acceptance or selection

among several offered - but all this is not so impor-

tant for our Project and this Conference.

2 These, as well as other mentioned results of the research,

were published in the article: Danainji djetji folkior - istra-

iiyanje u Zagrebu (Children's Folklore of Today - A Research in

Zagreb). Naradn... umjetnost, 5, 37-96. Zagreb 1978. The same

work was published in the periodical Usietnost i dijete, Vol.

XII, No. 68, Zagreb 1980, pp. 3-65.

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_ .

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4. Finally, here are some practical notes. I don'tknow the possibilities for field work in this pro-ject, and the quality and kind of material ultimatelyat our disposal. Older records from the ethnologicaland other literature, as well as unpublished recordsshould definitely be included. There are both ofthese kinds of data in Croatia; unpublished materialcan be found in the Committee for the Fol,c Life andMores of the Yugoslav Academy of the Sciences andArts, in the Ethnographical Museum, the Institute forthe Research of Folklore in Zagreb, and in the pos-session of certain individuals.

I wish good luck to the Project of research ontraditional children's games and its initiators,organizers and participants, and I thank you for theinvitation to participate in this Conference.

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Etsuko Nakamura

TRADITIONAL CHILDREN'S SAHEB IN JAPAN

As we have problems similar to yours, we, the Japa-nese committee of the OMEP are very glad to hear ofyour proposal, and to Join in on the discussion about

project of collecting and reviving traditionalgames in various countries.

Recently, especially after the Second World War,children's life styles and children's play have beenchanging rapidly. This change is generally summarizedin the following 6 points:

1. Children have less playing time.2. Children engage more in solitary play.3. Children play with companions of the same age.4. Children play in smaller groups.5. Children play less outdoors.6. Children engage less in creative play.

These tendencies are closely related to changes inour troubled society, such as: urbanization and moto-rization, a higher degree of education, a decline inthe extended family and family functions, and sc on.These factors have a strong influence an children'slives. As traditional children's games are closelyconnected to the life styles of the children, it is agreat challange for us to preserve traditional gamesin the modern society, especially since traditionalgames are handed down from olde' to younger genera-tions and also involve things found out-doors. Thetendency of children today to play only with the sameage group and to play in-doors will make the chal-lange greater. Another problem related to the revivalof traditional games is a shortage of young adultswho would play with the children, demonstrating howto play and how to make handmade toys.

Every year, I ask my 1st year students to fill ina questionnaire and write a short retrospective re-port on the games they played when they were child-ren. They remember the names of the games they playedand become excited when they share their memories,

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"Oh, I played that game, it was great fun, but I for-

got how to play it.". Or, they may remember some of

the toys which grandpa or grandma, or some other per-

son made and gave them, but they don't know how to

make them, or where to get the necessary materials.

Children today can get toys very easily in a store

bot can't make them by themselves. Fortunately, many

people have noticed the disappearence of traditional

games and have started revival movements. I'll tell

you aboy some of these activities afterwards. Before

that, I 11 tell you a little bit about the brief his-

tory of the research done on children's traditional

games in Japan.Japan, as you know, is a country with a long his-

tory and tradition. During the Edo period (from 1603

to 1e6e) under the policy of national isolation, the

Edn culture flourished among the merchant class. At

the beginning of the Meiji period, Japan opened to

the outside world, and rapidly received Western cul-

ture and modern ideas. We call this period "the age

of civilization". One of the greatest achievements ofthat time was the establishment of an educational sy-

stem in which children were trained to be cultured.

However, some people were troubled by the process of

Westernization and tried to reestablish the tradi-

tional values or true Japanese way of thinking and

way of life. In relation to the study of children'splay, I'll mention here two great names( Saijiro Ohta

and Kunio Yanagita.Ohta wrote a book about children's play, mainly on

traditional plays and games. Until that time, there

had already existed a few books of children's folk

.songs containing the words of songs, but there were

no bOoks which described play activities and how

children behaved. This book was published in 1901. In

it, the author compiled games from all over Japan,

recording them with illustrations intended for child-

ren. It was not an academic study but a very practi-

cal book which was easy to read.Yanagita, who was noted for his leadership in the

founding of the Japanese Folklore Society, wrote two

famous books on children's play. His method was to

use field resewch, such as observation, interviews

and the comparative analyses of games. In his work,

he wanted to describe the stages of development in

children's play.These are only two of the great forerunners in the

study of children's traditional play.Now I'd like to introduce some current research

and revival activities. First I shall mention the

field work going on in Japan.There is research concentrated on particular

areas, such as small villages, in which detailed in-

terviews with people of all ages are done. The goal

of this research is to study the process by which

these games are handed down from generation to gene-

ration, as compared to other phenomena such as folk

tales and customs.Another type of field work consists in collecting

children's games from various parts of the country.

The aim of this work is to revise the classifica 4.on

of children's games in general, to include folk

music. A chart of the classification is shown in the

Appendix.Finally, I would like to tell you about the cur-

rent education of teachers in terms of curriculum andcontent. Fortun.'ely, in the kindergartens teachers'

department, we %. ve the compulsory course called"Children's Culture," which is unique in the Japaneseteaching curricula 1. The main subject of this course

is children's pta and games and it covers various

children's educational and play materials, such as

toys, picture books, puppets, television, and so on.

All students, thus, get a taste of children's play,

its historical and educational aspects. To supplementthe course, there are many publications and textbooks

on children's play and games, including the tradi-

tional ones.

101; 1 1 0 0,. ,,

CLASSIFICATION OF PLAY University of Shimane Game Researchseminar - February 1st 1984

1 0 SONGS AND CHANTS 88 KINDS 591 EXAMPLES!1 00 Songs and Chants

1,

. 1 01 Certain expressions in chants or songs 1

. 1 02 Word games in chants or songs1

.

. 1 03 Counting games in chants or songs .i

. . 1 04 Word and counting gases in chants.

.

:EXPRESSIONS 1 05 Teasing chants1

,

. 1 06 Parody chants,

,

.

. 1 07 Singing games ,.

.

. 1 08 Word games1

. 1 09 Imitation games1

' . AND 1 1 DRAWING PICTURES TO CHANTS 69 KIN. 664 EX.!, 1 10 Drawing people using letters

1

, 1 11 Drawing people using shapes.

,

!

1 12 Drawing people using letters and shapes1

1 13 Drawing animals using letters .

.

1 IMITATION 1 14 Drawing animals using shapes1

' . 1 15 Drawing animals using letters and shapes 1

' . 1 16 Drawing things using letters1

. 1 17 Drawing things using shapes1

. 1 18 Drawing things using letters and shapes.

i

., 1 19 Writing chinese characters to chants

.

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I 2 HAND PLAY AND GAMES " KINDS 1418 EXAMPLES!.

. I 20 Hand play

.. 1 21 Hand play to chants or songsI I 22 Hand and body play'. I 23 Hand play with two people.

. I 24 Hand play in a groupI HAND PLAY I 25 Hand games1 1 26 Paper, scissors, rock (P.S.R.)'. 1 27 P.S.R. variation.

. 1 (using children's words for P.S.R.)

.

. I 28 Motions to songs or chants'. 129 P.S.R with other motionsI, AND 1 3 PAPER,SCISSORS,RuCK GAMES 68 KIN. 855 EX.1

130 Basic paper, scissors, rock (P.S.R.)!'. 1 31 P.S.R. using legs or arms

I I 32 P.S.k. using entire body.

I 1 33 P.S.R. to chants'.

I GAMES 134 More complicated version of P.S.R. for .

.

'. I determining the winner!

1. 1 35 Using P.S.R. to pick teams136 P.S.R. with other motions

'.

! 137 P.S.R. games .,

138 P.S.R variation ..

'. I (using children's words for P.S.R.) .

.

1 139 P.S.k. group competition for one winner .

.

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102. r

9

:

1 4 GAMES WITH TOYS OR EQUIPMENT 34 KIN. 305 EX.11 40 Toys '.

.' I 41 Tools ' .

1 1 42 Toys they make themselves 1

.' '1 43 Stone-throwing .

1 1 44 Bean bag balls I

!PLAYING WITH! 45 Bean bag games to songs or chants ,

.

1 1 46 Bouncing the ball ',

.

. 1 47 Bouncing ball games in a group 1

1 148 Moveable equipment (wagon, tricycle, etc.) 1

1 1 49 Playground equipment 1

1 EQUIPMENT I 5 JUMPING ROPE 49 KINDS 1101 EXAMPLES!.

. 1 50 Jumping robe alone 1

'. 1 51 With two people'. 1 52 Taking turns I

.

. 153 Jumping rope to songs or chants1 OR TOYS 1 54 Using P.S.R. to pick who jumps first '.

1 I 55 Jumping rope with motions.

.

1 1 56 Rope or string play .

.

,

.

1 (making a snake or cat's cradle) .

.

1 1 57 Moving a string of elastic bands wrapped .

.

.

. 1 around two people .

.

.

. 1 58 A version of 57 around the legs!

.

. 1 59 A version of 57 to chants

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1103

1 6 USING NATURE 30 KINDS 121 EXAMPLES1 60 Playing with grass or flowers: 61 Making things with grass or flowers1 62 Making whistles and noise makers1 63 Fortune telling with grass or flowers.

. (she loveme, she loves me not)1 64 Competitive games with grass or flowers1 (whishbone tug): 65 Making toys out of seeds, pinecones, nuts

' 1 66 Playing with small animals or insects: OUTDOOR : 67 Playing in the sand. : 68 Playing in the given environment

: (wall climbing)1 69 Playing in the given natural environment'. (tree climbing)1 7 USING BOUNDERIES 17 KINDS 371 EXAMPLES1 70 Making a maze or obstacle course1 71 70 using strings to make bounderies1 72 Using P.S.R. to make a picture line by line1 73 Flicking flat marbles to gain territory

PLAY 1 74 Kicking flat marbles (variation of 73)1 75 Flicking stones (variation of 73)1 76 Hopscotch-type games.

. (drawing a "board" and throwing stones)1 77 Hopscotch1 78 Hopscotch in teams: 79 Various hopscotch boards in the'. shape of things

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4410CC 4

' , 1 8 USING THE BODY 34 KINDS 328 EXANPLES1

. I 80 Games using the legs 1

. 1 81 Games using the entire body 1

, 1 82 Games using the body to chants 1

i I 83 Games using the body in a circle 1

: 84 Races and competition 1

1 85 Running races 1

I PHYSICAL : 86 Competition with a ball r

. 1 87 Baseball competition 1

. 1 88 Competition using playground equipment 1

. : 89 Combinations of competition above 1

I 1 9 IT GANES 67 KINDS 2415 EXAMPLES1

. I 90 Picking an "it'!

.

. 1 91 'It" games using a 'safe' zone

.

. I 92 'It" games using playground equipment.

.

. 1 93 It roleplaying (cops & robbers)

1 EXCERCISE 1 94 Hideandseek :

1 1 95 "It" must find hidden objects 1

' .1 96 Imitating the 'it" 1

1 1 97 Preventing the "it" from breaking I

I : a boundary I

' .I 98 London bridge 1

. 1 99 Nor, than one 'it" (become 'it" when caught)1,

IN TOTAL: 10 General classes, 100 Classes507 Kinds, 8170 Examples

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I

,

Kalle Justander

CHILDREN'S LORE AND TRADITIONALGAMES IN FINLAND

Play is an integral part in child's development. By

playing the child learns everyday chores, picks up

behaviour patterns, and adopts roles. Through the

ages, children's play has reflected their contempo-rary society: its culture, attitudes, knowledge and

level of technology. From the pedagogical point of

view on one hand, it has been emphasized that play ischildrens's work. On the other hand, for the childparticipation in play or games is not goal-directedexpansion of world picture, but playing simply be-

cause it is fun.In Finland, research on play tradition is still

quite young. The most outstanding investigations re-

lated to the field date from the past and present

decade. Lea Virtanen has investigated the trans-

mission of children's lore and traditions in peer

groups. This survey has proved that the most effec-tive way of transmitting children's traditions is by

children to children, from the older child generationin the yard to the younger. Bo Ltinnqvist has espe-cially concentrated on determining the role of theplaythings in children's tradition.

Children's tradition is very central in the socia-lizing process of the child. It contains the keys to

the membership of a play group. Verbal traditions(rhymes, jokes, ghost stories, etc.), games and esta-blished behaviour patterns strengthen the sense of

togetherness of the playmates in the group. Peer

group makes a strong impact on the emotional life of

the child. It encourages his process of independi-zation, widens his social outlook and helps to shape

his self-image.There are natural differences in the preservation

of children's lore and traditions between the citiesand the countryside. Rural children have better tra-

dition-bound knowledge proper to the surrounding

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adults, like proverbs, knowledge of yearly customsetc., than the urban children. The children's mutualplay culture may, however, be richer in the cities.The city yards with their many limitations lend them-selves to cultivation of rule games, whereas in thecountryside many play-like activities, like swimming,skiing down hillocks, playing with animals, areavailable and there children play more imaginationand imitation games. There are also differences ingames played at the school play-ground or at homeyard. At home girls and boys may well play together,but at school it is almost unthinkable.

Finnish children's lore has a quite similar ge-neral setting as children's tradition elsewhere inEurope. Finland's geographical position as a bridge-head between the East and the Wezt has contributed toits receiving cultural influences from various direc-tions.

In recent times we have noticed signs that yardgames have been disappearing. The parents may wellteach them to the children, but when not being playedin the yard, they are forgotten. Such interruption ofplay traditions is most typical to the new housingareas. There have also been signs of the reduction inthe selection of games. The rule games especiallyhave become fewer, which again may increase the pos-sibilities of children behaving more violently.

In Finnish research games related to children'slore have been grouped as follows:

1. Games of catchThese games have different names, although the rulesand way of playing are very similar. Game customs of-ten have interesting connections to magical tradi-tions and their expressions favour exotisms. It isthe rule rather than the exception that the games ofcatch contain the teasing of the chaser. The one tobe captured may either be hated or wanted: real ef-forts are made to capture him.

2. Games of hide-and-seekGames of hide-and-seek are most popular group gamesin the yard, where simple hiding and seeking is mademore complicated and exiting by differrint rules.

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3. Play warsPlay wars normally do not contain any fighting orhunting each other. Principally they do not differmuch from the games of catch or ball games.

4. Samos of imaginationGames of imagination reflect the adult world. Boysgenerally play car games, cops and robbers or gang-ster games. The imagination games of the girls arecompletely different: they play home and do not liketo take boys with, even as fathers, for in thesegames they simply are not needed.

5. Secret societies and play languagesThe model of a secret society may be taken from ayouth book or from television. The matters conveyedare not so important, the goal is to elevate thesense of community of the speakers by teasing others.

6. Collecting as a hobbyCollecting as a hobby belongs to the custom tradi-tion, only the objects collected change. It gives apossibility to exchange objects collected and is thusan important form of social intercourse.

7. Pastime rhymesRhymes and nonsense poems are generally used to begina game. It is said that "rhymes are more than play-things to children". They are a way of communicationthat enables mutual social intercourse. In additionto the opening rhymes, well-known songs and poems be-come popular in twisted forms. The purpose of theplay rhymes is the pleasure by the phonetic play.

S. Questions, riddles and narrative traditionThese games may contain the embarrassing and kiddingof the other person. In Finland riddles surviv,2d asthe pastime for the adults until the beginning ofthis century. At present, the most skilled riddle--makers are children between 7 and 10 years of age.They ask each other riddles at any time, either topass the time or to embarrass the other. VariousJokes and ghost stories also belong to the narrativetradition.

The role of the playthings in the play traditionPlaythings have often been understood too narrowly:to be conscioy 'y made by adults for children. Theplaythings mad '31,, children themselves have not been

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considered in them at all. The cultural anthropolo-gical research emphasizes the spontaneity of child-ren's world. child has his own way independent ofadults, to work my his surroundings and to ,Tlopt sti-muli. Children play a lot without needing any specialtoy. In group games, as in hide-and-seek, for instan-ce, even a scarf is sufficient for starting the game.Flexibility is typical to "natural" play and game,free fro4 patronizing adults. The meaning and thetask of the playthings changes infinitely.

The essence of toy culture had hardly changed be-fore the 19th century. The selection of toys was re-duced. A doll and a hobby-horse were the basic toys.Industrial revolution was epoch-making to toy cul-ture. Also in Finland, the first toy factories werefounded in the latter part of the 19th century. Toysdeveloped into a new kind of pastime, to substitutesfor adults and play-mates.

It can be observed that the traditions of play andtoys are still. strongly alive. Playing home withdolls, shopkeeping and other typos of role play con-tinue to be the favourites of the girls; boys playwith trains and railway tracks and cars, togetherthey play g, as, busy themselves with hobby equip-ment, or construct with bricks. Each toy has itsdirect historical counterpart. Industrial revolutionbrought new materials to playthings. And after theSecond World War the hegemony of the plastic hasgreatly changed the appearance of the toys.

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-:

Ludvik Horvat

A PLAY AS A SUBJECT OF ETHNOLOGICAL ANDEDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

We can find out nowadays that the specific featuresof children's games which are characteristic forcertain social environmentiN, cultures and nationalgroutmi are restrainlessly fading away. The content ofchildren's games is getting more and more uniform,due to the influence of institutionalized programmeso.5 upbringing and,education, mass media and the wayof life in general, In the past fifty year theethnologists have noticed a consteht disappearance ofseries of habits, cistoms and folk's games which arerelated to them were usually performed by child-ren as well as by adults, Certain sports games andother kinds of systematically organized recreationsand relaxations are taking their place today. Inspite of the fact that a greater part of contemporarysports games has its origin in some specific folkgames of a particular culture, they have been changedthroughout their development so much that their play-ing component has lost its meaning and function inmodern sports. It sounds almost tragical that thisfinding can be stated for the professional sport aswell as for the unimportant village competitions. Be-cause of this and a series of other reasons, it isimportant to develop research projects which willtend to register the wealth of traditional gamer inparticular cultures, try to save them from oblivion,to rehabilitate, revitalize and adapt them for themodern way of life.

The history of the ethnological science has wit-nessed the age of romanticism in Europe as the timeof the first awareness about folk tradition in natio-nal cultures. There has been a wide range of writtenevidence for it, from the first oryanized collectionsof folklore and their publishing, and even more inte-resting, from the usage of oral transmission as a

111

motive or even a literary style in the literature ofthat time.

The cultural life of Yugoslav nations was in acertain way and to a certain extent also captured bythis current. The enthusiasm and quali'ication ofSerbian Vuk Karadlid for collecting the folklore atthe beginning of the 19th century was well known tothe distinguished Slovenian Jernej Kopitar in Vienna.This tendency existed more or less throughout thewhole 19th century and became more and more manifesta.so in our country. All of this was in a certain waythe base for the development of the ethnological sci-ence which was at its begining strictly oriented todescriptions of phenomena, especially in the field ofspiritual culture. The first denomination for tnescience has its origin here: ethnography (grafos: towrite, to note/. The ethnological research was notdeepened and did not include any comparative methodsor try to intensify the explanations of individualphenomena z.s a part of general life praxis in a par-ticular socio-cultural envi.-onMent until the modernethnological science has developed. There are onlyfragmentary attempts at systematic research ofchild's play which are known in our ethnologicalliterature. The one exception is Slovenian ethno-logist N. Kuret who dedicated the greater part of hisethnological research work to child's play.

The unique action to elaborate an ethnological mapof Yugoslavia was started at the Yt'.goslav Ethnologi-cal Association in 1967. This has been a large pro-ject in terms of its goals, scope and preciseness ofmethodology. But it seems even larger if we know atleast the outlines of our ethnological wealth and thevariety of nations and nationalities living on Yugo-slav ground. This project has been going on for over20 years and the field work has not been completedyet. Since there are many organizational and finan-cial problems it is reasonable to ask when and if atall this exceptional project will be finished. I

would like to point out that the fourth part of thequestionnaires include paticular areas of tradi-tional children's and ad..tt's games.

vY

There has also been another large project "TheEthnological Topography of Slovenian Ethnical Ter-ritory" going on since 1978. The nineth section ofthe questionnaire used in field work includes in itsthird chapter the precise methodology in the field of"children's and adult's games" and was prepared bypreviously cited Slovenian ethnologist N. Kuret. Somemonographies about ethnological topography whichtreat the particular localities with their environ-ments have already been published. Reviewing theseworks I found out that the area of traditional child-ren's games has been treated extremely well.

Preparing this brief report I inspected the archi-ves in the Ethnological Institute of the SlovenianAcademy of Sciences and Arts. Together with my col-league ethnologists we concluded that further collec-tions of material on the terrain are not necessaryeven for elaboration of a highly extensive and pre-cise anthology of traditional children's games on theSlovenian ethnic territory. Further field work wouldbe interesting only for comparative research andwould probably only confirm my initial thests aboutthe decrease in the extent of appearance and themeaning of traditional games throughout decades. Thiskind of research would be especially interesting forthe nations who have similar archives with recordingsthrough longer periods of time.

Therefore, I suggest to formulate th" frame ofreference for the methodology. We should first findout what has already been collected in the area ofchildren's traditional games, in what way and by whatmethods, the way it was written down, how much mate-rial is preserved and how al/ of this can be usefulfor the realization of the idea about the elaborationof the anthology on traditional children's games. Un-til we solve these problems, it does not make sensefor the ethnological science to engage in any furthercollection of games in cases where single areas andregions have not been treated yet and when the mate-rials have not preserved. We should cooperatewith ethnologists in this kind of research work anduse their experiences as well as their methods.

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In the second part of my contribution, I wouldlike to point out the further problems in the pro-cedure of anthology preparation. To achieve the goalsthe project has set about the traditional games, it

will be necessary to elaborate a precise methodologyfor the selection of material and, later on, the cri-teria for their systematization. Elaborating the rri-teria and methods for the systematization of games itwill be necessary to consider the criteria from thepoint of view of the humanistic as well as the socialsciences. I would like to draw atter,tion to all the"romantic" mistakes which take everything called"folklore" for genuine, original and of exceptionalvalue. .t will be necessary to find out what has its

social and cultural value through profound histori-cal, linguistic and cultural analyses. A process of

sifting will also have to be done. It will separatethe weeds from the precious grains at the end.

The concern of the sociologists, pedagogues andpsychologists for everyday life forms the second partof the criteria. We can att ourselves whether every-thing traditional is really worth in general, andwhether it has its value in normal child development,or educational value in the modern way of life. Thro-ugh such antologies we have to strive for the preser-vation of "tradition" because it is precious from thehistorical point of view. In this way we shall notnegate particular qualities of modern life, the basichuman values and relations in the society at the endof the second millenium. One-dimensional approachesto "the traditional", "the folk", "the tested throughtime" may become, in its extreme form or when miscon-cieved, a violation of today's childhood, in the sameway as modern cartoons and other mass media, whichhave become consumer goods for children all over theworld, and at the same time the basic means of mani-pulation with their personal identity formation.

At the end I would like to emphasize the greatimportance of the project goals which show that suchan undertaking is not meant to preserve the old, pas*and overcome, for our descendents. The basic goal of

these anthologies is to enrich the impoverished so-cial environment and relations among children and

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adults in today's way of life. Even if we manage tocompile good anthologies of traditional children'sgames of various nations, there will still remain theopen question whether these anthologies will remainjust written documents of extreme value about theways of life in the past. Therefore, I suggest thatthese anthologies should include additional materialwhich would explain the origin and the development ofgames, their role in the past, their importance inchild development and especially their meaning in

today's society. We should also take into accountthat we will have to overcome certain kinds of pre-judices in parents and other educators. If we manageto preserve the most genuine traditional children'sgames, to revitalize them in today's world and makethem become actual in child's everyday life we willbe allowed to state that the project in general hasattained its intention. At the present this is stillan open question. We can also state that an extremeeffort of various professionals and social organiza-tions in each society will be necessary.

REFERENCES

Key, E. (1905). Das Jahrhundert des Kindes. Berlin.Kuret, N. (1959). Igra in igrade v predtolski dobi-

Maribor.Etnolotka topografija slovenskega etidnega ozemlja.

Vpratalnice, IX. Ljubljana 1978.Etnolotko druttvo Jugfdslavije. Vpratalnica, IV.

Zagreb 1967.

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i

Sinikka Kuosmanen

PLAY, TRADITION AND TRADITIONAL BANES

In 1789 Vicar Nils Idman said "Finns were so reticentand morose that they know no other play than thatwhich nature herself requires of them". Fifty yearslater Elias Lonnrot, compiler of the Finnish folkloretradition, was to say that "comely pleasures, gamesand amusements are refreshing after hard work. Enjoy-ed in moderation they enhance both body and mind, andaugment the circulation and the flow of other fluidsas well. After working each and every one should him-self take delight and also provide innocent enter-tainments for others, especially for children andyoung people".

The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare, a 66-- year -old child welfare organization '.,at also recei-ves financial support from the State, feels thatmaking children aware of their folklore and art isone of the central concyrns of child welfare.

In 1980 the Mannerheim League made an extensivesurvey of both child welfare professionals and fami-lies. This survey contains the views and expectationsof the respondents on important questions .of childwelfare in their communities. Results obtained fromall over Finland were consistent. The respondentswanted the Mannerheim League, which engages in volun-tary child welfare work, to device activities inwhich the entire family could take part. The findingswere interesting, because a study of the Finnish wayof life made jointly by a number of universities atthe same time arew attention to the "impoverishmentof family life in Finland". The time spent togetherby families with children is very short, only 20-30minutes a day. Families both in towns and in thecountry spent most of their spare time watching tele-vision, 2.5 hours a day. An atmosphere of nostalgiafor the past emerged after the study. An illusion offormer happiness was maintained, the good sides of

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the present were denied, and a dim view of contemRo-rary life a'-'ost always prevailed.

In seekii,g to find activities for the entire fami-ly.the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare startedwith the child, and considered what is essential tohim. The conclusion was that play is a fundamentalpart of childhood. Research nn Finnish customs showedthat families played very little together, and thatchildren's games were not', very well known. In theatmosphere of nostalgia it was believed that familiesused to spend all their time playing together. Inorder to bridge this obvious cultural gap, the Man-nerheim League made a pilot study of traditionalgames enjoyed by the entire family. The parents andgrandparents of today's small children were inter-viewed to fin.; out about the games they had played.The goal was to offer the games played by grandmotherand grandfather as a substitute for television. Morethan 300 games were collected this way. The games re-called by grandparents could be divided into twobasic groups. On the one hand there were parlor gamesplayed by respondents in their youth, and on theother hand combinations of songs and games from Ger-many that were used in Finnish kindergartens. As thegames themselves showed, play involving members ofdifferent generations was rare, and the purpose ofplay was in fact to promote interaction within a sin-gle age group. Play offered a chance to make tieswith one's own age group when work was done, andunder the supervision of adults. Young people inthose days had neither clubs nor discotheques.

Tradition in general experienced a renaissance inFinland at the beginning of the 1980g. Educators be-came interested in games and play in a new way. Al-though research did not actually confirm views aboutplay in the past, it did include individual gamesthat were representative of the 200-year tradition ofplay in Finland.. The games were easy to adapt topresent day conditions without losing any of theirtraditional value. They were published in a bookentitled "It's' Fun to play" which includes songs,combined games and songs, games involving exerciseand apparatus of various kinds, games without songs,

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and crafts - all of which can be used together withchildren. The book is divided into two parts, thefirst of which includes sqngs and games and instruc-tions for the use of the five-string kangele, a new"traditional" Finnish instrument. The other halfdeals with the seasons and with customs and beliefsrelated to them.

As the book itself states, there is little it theway of a children's tradition of play. On the whole,lullabies and entertaining songs were sung to smallchildren. Older children accompanied their parentsand gradually learned songs heard from them at workor when having a,good time. Many of today's child-ren's games are really adults' songs, dances, ritu-als, sport or forms of contest. What we consider the"classical" children's tradition today was not forchildren alone; customs that are regarded as part ofthe adult world are perhaps future children's games.Much of what is known as Finnish oral tradition orfolklore consists of play between two or more indivi-duals. Usually the partictpants are aware of verbalaspects of the game or play, but are not very fami-liar with the entirety.

The games recalled by the oldest Finns are 1.

everyday songs conceived during periods of rest bet-ween work, 2. "killanketo", a type of Finnish folksport and 3. village games of young people. Play waslinked to the seasons, and was divided between fes-tivals connected with work and church holidays.Church festivals generally fell when there was lesswork outdoors and festivals connected with work whenthere was a lot to do outside. In the traditionalFinnish village community an attempt was made to makework pleasant for the doer (a virtue was made ofnecessity), so that time would pass quickly. Theregular exertions of the crop year were made intocommunity efforts in which competition and latentmerriment were combined with work; when the job wasdone the workers would be treated with an abundanceof food and drink. Games that involved both actingand singing were part of these festivals; they weresometimes a bit wild, because each individual was al-

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lowed to make fun of the others' contribution to thejoint effort, in this case the raising of food.

In collecting material for the book "It's Fun toplay", the Mannerheim League for Child Welf,:tre hasnot gone any deeper into the nature of play than whatwas mentioned above; it has concentrated on encoura-ging play and humor in everyday life through games.Xn 1982, the Sunday after the UN Children's RightsDay was designated a day of play. The MannerheimLeague has trained area leaders for these play ses-sions, who have in turn trained additional leaders intheir own communities. On the first such Sunday,games that had been chosen jointly were played in 100communities. The following year new forms of play andgames were introduced, and these will certainly be-come tomorrow's traditions. In 1984, more than 40000children and adults took part in play sessions heldin 300 communities. The goal is to maintain thosegames already learned and at the same time to expandand promote play, the theme being "Play for every-one".

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Jean Retschitzki

FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH AB A CONTRIBUTION TO THESURVIVAL OF THE ABELE SAME

The amble gameThe awel0 game belongs to the class of sowing games,little known in the West, but quite widespread alongthe African continent as well as in certain parts of

Asia and South America. There are many variations,existing under different flames: Kalah, Serata,Palankuli, Wari, Solo, etc.

Their common characteristic is that they are play-ed with seed placed in partitions usually carved out

in a wooden board. These partitions are arranged in

several rows and there is a fixed direction in whichthe sowing takes place. The goal of the game is tocollect the most of this seed, according to rulespertaining to a numerical distribution of the seedalong the partitions. Sometimes the players simplydig holes in the ground, and the seed is replacedwith pebbles or small shells.

In the variation which we have studied, the gameis played by two players with a board composed of tworows of six partitions each each partition containsfour seeds at the beginning of the game; the playerstake turns; one turn consists in the player choosinga partition on his side of the board, taking its con-tents and sowing these counter-clockwise, leaving oneseed per box. At the end of his turn, if the playerfinishes his sowing with one of the opponent's par-titions, and this partition contains 2 or 3 seeds,these are collected by the player as well as aa theseeds in the preceding partitions belonging to theopponent that also contain 2 or 3 seeds.

The first description of the awele game in the7iterature was given by Start (1955); further workshave delt specifically with this game and suppliedinteresting additional details about it (Raabe, 1972;Deledicq & Popova, 1977; Ballou, 1978). We were lod

by these works to give a brief description of therules of the game, which is given in the appendix.

It is a very simple game, as the rules can belearnt in a few minutes. Still, only sufficientlylong experience allows one to reach a satisfactorylevel of mastery of the game and to play it well. Thebest players are usually the old people in a village,mostly illiterate. This could seem paradoxical, asthe rules of collection are based on numerical cri-teria, the manipulation of which could be facilitatedby school learning.

We can also stress that the game is interestingfor all ages. It already attracts children who havejust learned its rules, and it retrains fascinatingfor adults as well. We have encountered many IvoryCoast intellectuals who devote a great deal of theirfree time to discussions of the interminable tour-naments in the game.

Traditional aspects of the amble gameAlthough the ethnologists cannot explain with cer-tainty the origin of the amble game, which thus re-presents a sort of enigma, the game is deeply rootedin the tradition, as is witnessed by numerous indica-tors. It has left many traces in the customs and ob-jects.

In relation to customs, several authors reportthat the game was reserved for dignitaries (Zaslav-sky, 1973; Raabe, 1972). It seems, thus, that thegame was used in the process of appointing the newvillage chief among the Alladians, a people who livein the south of Ivory Coast. Many other examplescould be given.

As for the objects, one can find, in the markets,weights for measuring gold which represent aweleboards, as well as numerous carved boards the wear ofwhich bespeaks antiquity.

Besides, the game is officially recognized as apart,of the national heritage. It was chosen as thesymbol of Ivory Coast national lottery and is depic-ted on each of its tickets. A national championshipwas organized and large excerpts were broadcast bythe national TV. Finally, a recent movie, which was

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awarded first prize at the Festival in Cannes, shotsthe game of awele.

A disappearing gameIt is becoming relatively rare to see awele beingplayed in the villages. When we were going to orga-nize our research, it seemed that it was almost im-possible to find a board in the village of Kpouebo,We ourselves had to provide the games which we haJacquired at the markets of Abidjan, games meant forpassing, tourists.

We may, therefore, have certain dreads about thesurvival of the game and suppose that it may be indanger of disappearing. Actually, it is submitted tothe competition by numerous other, less traditionalgames, which we have seen appearing in the villages(checkers, for example).

There are, besides, several indications that manyparents forbid their children to play the game.

What's more, the wave of modernism, which has af-fected Ivory Coast like many other countries, mayhave the effect of devalueing the awele game, whichwould be considered as overly connected to traditio-nal customs.

It can be savedEven though we may concider the awele game to bethreatened by extinction, we shouldn't overestimatethe gravity of this plight. Actually, there also arefavorable factors which act in the opposite direc-tion.

Paradoxally, while the game has almost disappearedin villages, the revival of its vigor may originatein the cities, where we have seen groups of workersamusing themselves at the midday break by playingawele. There also exist clubs which gather amateurplayers of this game. They can also be found in somenumber of marketplaces.

Besides, we may note that the Ivory Coast, likemany other similar countries, has become aware of theimportance of preserving a certain number of tradi-tional values, and that the goverhment has takenmeasures to this end. We may believe that a game like

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1

ti

avil* could also benefit from this type of measuresif that became necessary.

Besides, it is necessary to note that most peoplestill know the rules of the game, and that it is al-ready appreciated to an extent, at least by certainmilieus, as demonstrated by the national televisionbroadcast of the finals of a disputed national cham-pionship in Abidjan.

The most valuable support for the survival of theawele game could come from outside the country. Name-ly, on the one hand, educational circles could besensitized to the educational value of the game, andon the other, the game could make a full come-backthanks to micro-informatics.

In the educational domain, De4edicq and Popova(1977) have shown that the rules of the awele gamecould be used in a mathematics course as an interes-ting way to work through various concepts, such ascombinational analysis, they reduction of relationalgraphs, determination of the winning strategy, orprobability calculation (Deledicq & Popova, 1977, ch.3).

Those are quite difficult examples, reserved foradvanced students. We Lan already use situations fromthe awele at the primary level in exercising moreelementary concepts, such as correspondence, the de-composition of whole numbers, elementary addition andsubtraction, and various examples of conservation(Zaslaysky, 1973, ch. 11).

Fundamental research can contribute to the salvationof the gameIn terms of the central preoccupation of the OMEPProject, namely the revival of traditional games, wecan ask ourselves what it would be possible to do inthe particular case of the awele game.

It is possible to imagine various means of action,to begin with - a campaign directed at educators,meaning parents and teachers. In as much as the lat-ter are concerned, it would be adequate to alert themto the profit they could draw from the situations ofthe game in their teaching (cf. the previous sec-tion).

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As far AM parents are concerned, it is nacessaryto be ablt, to persuade them rot to forbid their

rTi'childeen to play the game, as seems often to be thecase. This ndeavour is certainly not an easy one,considering that the appreciation of children's playactivities in these regions has only recently madeWay in the light of psychological works.

'Having this difficulty in mind, it iu also pos-r:sible to judge such an enterprise unmalistic. We

Were told by the winner of the Ivory Coast nationalchampionship how he was initiated in the game and,periected it during his childhood secretly from hisparents (Angoua Kouadio, personal communicati',n). As'Cat has not prevented him from becoming the excel-11..4-it player that he is, we may ask ourselves whetherthe parents prohibition isn't in certain casesactually beneficial, conferring on the game theattraction of forbidden fruit.

Another type of campaign, less direct but perhapsmore efficient, would consist in indirect attempts atthe modification of the image which the people haveof the awele game.

Instead of insisting on the traditional characterof the game, we might on the contrary demonstrate itsrichness, complexity and modernism.

The richness of the game may be demaistrated onthe basis of theoretical analyses of the same type asthose by Deledicq and Popova (1977) or Ballou (1978).

In the same manner, using psychological work aboutthe players' strategies (Retachitzki, N'SuessarAssande & Loesch-Berger, 1985) we may demonstrate alltheir complexity and the intellectual value of thisactivity.

Finally, we may demonstrate the modernism of theame thanks to the interest it arouses in Westerncountries and its implementation in various micro--processors. Thus, a variation is currently ciri:u-lating in one of the most recent machines, theMacIntosh (Spinelli, 1985).

It is in this type of indirect campaigns that fun-damental research initiated for achieving totallydifferent objectives can prove to be efficient.Through publications and the stimulation of discus-

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sions in various milieus, the impact of this work maybe significant.

REFERENCES

Ballou, K. (1978). Regles et atrategies du jeud'awalt. Abidjan: Nouveiles editions afri-caines.

Heart, C. (1955). Jeux et jouets de l'Ouest Afri-cain. Dakar: IFAN.

Deledicq, A. & Pcpova, A. (1977). Wari et solo. Lejeu de calcul africain. Pa.;s: Cedic.

Raabe, J. (1972). L'awele. Paris: Ed. de la Cour-tille.

Retschitzki, J., N'Guessan Almande, S. & Loesch--Berger, M. C. (1985, July). Etude cognitive etgenetique des strategies des joueurs d'awile.Paper presented at the 3th Biennial Meeting ofthe International Society for the Study of Beha-..vioral Development, Tours (France).

Spinel:i, 0. (1985). Awele: is perle noire des jeuxde reflexion. Icones, 2, 22.

Zaslaysky, C. (1973). Africa counts. Number and pat-tern in african culture. Boston: Prindle, Weber& Schmidt.

APPENDIX., Rules of the amble game

1. Beginning of the game:- seeds are placed on the board

four per partition.Players draw lots for decide) anwho is to begin. The situation atThe first player chooses one par- the outset.titian in his range, gathers allthe seeds found there and sows them.

4 4 4 4 4 44 4 4 4 4 4

4 4 4 4 4 52. Rules of sowing: 4 4 0 5 5 3- One seed per partition is sown,

moving counter-clockwise. 5 5 5 0 4 5- When the player has finished sow- 5 4 0 3 5 5

ing the seed from his chosen par-tition, he may collect the seed 5 5 5 0 4 5to which he nvo has right. 5 0 1 6 6 6

- It is, then, his opponents turnto play. He chooses a partition An example ofwithin his range, gathers up the the beginingseed and sows. of the game:

A has played from the 3-rdpartition, then n na playedfrom the 9th, and finally Afrom the 2nd.

3. Rules of collection:- When the sowing finishes in the opponent's range,bringing the content of :he last partition to 2 or 3seeds, the player takes these, adding them to hisgrains.Example: Continuing from the last presented situa-

tion, player B can collect 2 seeds by play-ing the 4th partition.

6 6 0 0 4 56 1 2 6 6 6

P finishes his sowing in the 3rd partition,bringing its content up to 2 seeds. He col-lects the tt4o seeds. The resulting situationis:

6 6 0 0 4 56 1 0 6 6 6

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M,

- . the partitions preceding the one from which seedhas Jaen collected also contain 2 or 3 seeds, theircontents are also collected, right down to the end ofthe opponent's range.

Examp!es

3 2 1 2 1 0 In this situation, player A1 3 0 6 0 1 can

fromcollect 7 seeds by playingthe 4th partition.

A's turn: 3 2 2 3 2 11 3 0 0 1 2

After the collection :

3 0 0 0 10 1 2

4. r the games- Th. ..tme thus continues in altern.iting moves untilone of the following outcomes:

1. the total remaining number of seeds does notpermit collection any more

2. one of the players cannot make a move3. the players decide to interrupt the game, the

outcome being obvious.- The player who has co)lected more seed is the win-ner of the game.

5. Important spocifications:- If, in a single sowing movement, a complete circlearound the board is made (more than 11 seeds in theinitial partition), the player does not have to placeany more seed in the initial partition.- In case that the opponent has no seed left, theplayer is obliged to play 4 move that will regain him*some, as long as such a o..,ve exists.- It is forbidden to collect all the opponent's seed.If tne move which would result it this is the onlyone cpen to the player, he will make no collectionand the game will continue.

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;5

Sily

DIFFERENCES IN THE AUTHENTICITY OFCHILDREN'S EXPRESSION AND THE VIEWING

ANGLE OF THE ADULTS (II)

There are three crucially different approaches to the"truth" about children's play which are diametricallyopposed in relation to function and therefore also toauthenticity:a) The fl.rst and solely authen-

t i c approach presents children at freeP 1 a y, in their natural surroundings, meaning ingroups of children of various ages, the play takingplace in various ambiences natural to the child. Theplaying under these conditions takes place accor-oing to the bio-psycho-social rules of the child'scomplex a'd integral person, spontaneous-ly and - what's important - in an emotio-n al 1 y involved manner and thereforewith maximal concentration. For such play and suchplayfulness represent the child's need to socialize(which is important) and the child's' natural need forthe joy of living (which is .also important).

The collecting methodology - at least an games ofthe musical type - to focus its recordings pri-marily on this aproach, because the child'sauthentic creative statements thus obtainedwill serve as authentic material for the studyo f the child by the a.dults, ofhis childhood, sensibility, and his life in thecourse of his growing up.

b) A different approach consists in the "obser-vations" of adults who still "hear", "see", "record"and "evaluate" only certain children's statements,chosen according to the value of the grown-up Euro-mean civilization. The approach lately incorporatesthe quasi-humanitarian motto: "Adults must d e s -cend to the level of the child"!! The adultstill sees only an "immature adult" in the child, in-stead of finally understanding how difficult it is

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not to "descend", but to "rise" to the level of the

child!These documents are also significant in regard to

the recording methodology, especially as material forcomparison with the first, authentic category. Theyare particularly useful in the classification of theobtained material, serving as a "memo"-to the adults,enabling them to "hear", "see", "observe", "under-stand",

to"think" better for the benefit of genera-

tions o come.c) The third approach is the most destructive in

relation to children's play, their natural way of

life, and the abundance of their creltive imaginationand free. expression. It consists in the use of playfor "educational" purposes, as employed in the past300 years by the euphoric European pedazogy, with itsever specific "objectives and tasks" and "administra-tive" organizational designs. For example, the rhyth-mic, metric and structural wealth of spontaneouschildren's counting rhymes is allegedly used fo"speech exercises"; or, for example, games are group-ed for the purpose of the partial and notintegral developmentof the child's physical, cogni-tive, psychological and other abilities, or for thepurpose o." "formal musical education", all this stilltaking place according to that tragic didactic mis-conception' "from the easier to the more difIlicult" -without asking what is actually easier for the child,and forgetting that the integral developmentof the child will also suit the specific area deve-lopment. The approach of the adult to children's playin education today is either based on the segragatingattitudde about children's "minority" or, currentlyfashionably, consists in a market-wise evaluation of

the originally integral (syncretic) child's creati-vity and his authentic imagination, mercilensly tear-ing it apart and submitting it to the consumer trendsof the mass media, the publishing institution, and

educational programmes for the development of thechild's "ear", "voice", etc., including text-bookswhich are generally similarly conceived.

Play - not the ed=ationally "utilitarian" and"rationed" kind but the real one - is a social need

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of the child. In the process of the child's adapta-tion to society, instead of being obstructed in hissocialization by misconceived educational measures,

:

play enables the child to develop a creative spirit,the joy of life, and freedom of personality. It en-abler children to develop into a more communicative,less aggressive generation.

Children of various ages mutually interact intheir natural play setting, while age-wise groupingin institutions hinders to a great extent the naturalsocialization and mental development of the childthrough play. The child becomes socially integratedthrough play. However, through the educational em-ployment of play, the educational practice will"evaluate" the child, leading to social differentia-tion. Precisely there lies the danger that the adult

. will not understand the profouni func- tion ofplay in the child's natural development.

In her plenary lecture, Dr. Sande Marjanovid hasmentioned a work of mine on the atrophy of thechild's creative imagination in the course of morethan a quarter of a century on the same territory.

In that paper, I discussed the faulty attitudes ofcontemporary musical education in the world, using anexample from our country, from the Mediterraneanisland cf Hvar. I described the systematic impove-rishment of the children's musical creative imagina-tion in making up their own counting rhymes, as theyfall under the "influence of models" presented by theschool, the educational programme and text-books.These models were chosen in a utilitary fashion, ac-cording to the unfortunate dictum - "from the easierto the more difficult" - resulting in closed forms ofa verbal, musically stereotyped sort, of a uniformrhythmic flow. For example:

Ito medo kroz iumicu n riizgubio papudicu ri rt.

On the other hand, in the same territory, thereis a musical richness of rhythmic structures and thedynamism of open forms in the products of children'sspontaneous creative imagination:

131

- Weis* 1) Hvar island:Sdipavica pipavica mede kalaJsi nn mn 6T) :

stanko banko ilojka bilojka I-1 I-1 Fri r'Fscar beg na vojsku

The first rhyme results from the adult "teaching" ofrhythm, while the second results from the child'sliving exper'ience of rhythm as anatural occurrence.

The collection of children's musical folkolore,especially the melodic and rhythmic structures, willdemand a more elaborate and specific methodologicalapproach than that necessary in the collection ofliterary categories (fairy tales, stories, etc.).

Scientific work has encountered the dangers ofdenying authenticity to the childish cha-racter of these categories of children's creativeimagination while conducting:

a) their collection,b) their musicological description,c) the elaboration, definition and categorization

of the collected material,d) the application of the collected material for

educational purposes.This significant problem would require elaboration

in a separate article.We shall mention here only one problem related to

education which is important for the child's develop-ment into an adult human being. The problem of ourresponsibility imposes itself upon us; will we not,by supporting the child's freedom, hinder his neces-sary adaptation to the society he lives in'' Won't wethus support his alienation, instead of helping himin socialization?

I believe that the only correct answer would be toprovide the child simultaneously withb o t h. In my musical pedagogy ("Functional MusicalPedagogy"), I termed this the "continuous double--track principle" in the child's development, during

All examples cited here are taken from menu s c r i-p t s of the elographic and ethnomusicological field work bythis authors and cannot be reprinted or used for any oth.lr pur-pose without reference to this source.

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which play, the freedom of creative imagination andthe preservation of the integrity of the child's per-sonality will all, through thoughtful action, enrichand help - and not "hinder" - the child's adaptation.P lay here is Joyfulness in play-i n g - the social component of primary importancefor the child's development.

Here is only one of numerous examples:The child "learns" very early to count off his

fingers. Thus he learns to count to 10 for the pur-poses of utilitarian verbal communication. Semanti-cally, all the children from one linguistic arealearn to name the numbers in a uniform manner. How-ever, parallely to the semantic counting, childrenlike to enrich the sequence from 1 to 10 in the"other track" with creative sound. Here are severalcitations from my ethnomusicological records from ourterritory.

I will ask those participants in this gatheringwho have been blocked in early childhood by musicalpedagogy and persuaded that they have "no ear" toforget this childhood frustration for a moment and tobelieve me that every child has an ear for music.Each of you will be able to "hear" the musicality ofthese child-imagined numbers from 1 to 10.

With the ability to count off the numbers semanti-cally correctly as they are, for example, in theCroatian or Serbian language - from 1 to 10: jedan,dva, tri, detiri, pet, test, sedam, osam, devet,deset - there is simultaneously a musical richness ofthe child's joy in imaginative play. The verbal ele-ments in the counting are not "meaningless words", asthey are not meant here to have a "meaning" in theverbal-communicational sense. They are here a musi-cal - communicational means of "sounding joy", under-standable to all the children in the world.

- The children of Croatian settlers in the sur-roundings of Beaks Topple:

Jedno kolo dvokolo trokolo /In rn 1-ntvrkalo pekalo *ekalo Trn rn rnsejman dojman H Hdiverego dris

iTTI )0V

- A Hungarian child playing with the Slavic-soun-

ding counting rhyme; Dolga Vas the region of Prek-

aurJe):Enoga vanogatrinoga didira Tfinja rinJa- n nokola sokola U3 Tdinoga dike- (Jelsa 24) - Hvar island:

Jednogo dvogb trogvdetvorogo pego itego n n 6prtekun dekun ri re

delade kvi ri Or

The last eAyme comes from the mentioned island,

where pedagogy has succeeded in atrophying the child -

ren;s musical imagination'in counting rhymes.I have recently encountered such r counting game

in my ethnomusicological research in Oradi4de, at the

boundaries of Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia,

where Croatians have settled 400 years ago in their

retreat from the incoming Turks, preserving their

language in the new homeland.Here is the children's musical game of counting 1

to 10 from the beginning of this century:

- Gradiide, in Hunagary:An4re cvanaretrikule cesare Tengva lengva n nokva dokva 1-1

dibina dix Y

.I. shall conclude with the suggestion; let us not

be, in our future Project, the "archeologists" of

children's creative imagination, recording traditio-

nal games and play as a part of the cultural heritage

in ordiir to save them from oblivion, but let us also

try to save this wealth of children's imagination

from extinction!

134

Jadranka Nikid

TRADITIONAL GAMES IN THE KINDERGARTEN

As the most significant childhood activity, play hasalways been a constituent part of the life and work,as well as of the culture of each social community.This may also bP said for the play of the contem-porary child.

Because of the great significance which play hasfor children of all ages, it has long been the 'sub-ject of interest and study in respect to the chara-cter and type of games played at particular ages, aswell as to the general significance of play in childdevelopment.

Play was studied by educationalists psycholo-gists, sociologists, ethnologists, cultural histo-rians, musicologists, as well as all those interestedin the meaning of human development and existence.According to some, play is not only an integral partof many wakes of lif' , such as art, science, langu-age, mores, etc., is represents the source of all

cultural processes. "ter Huizinga, author of 'HomoLudens", play is the motor of civilizational develop-ment, which leads us to the idea that the reaches of

culture, its quality and content, depend very much onthe variety and wealth of games.

aiso appears as a link between generations,which transmits in the most natural way the valuesheld by a community, the systems of ethical and aes-thetic norms, beliefs, ideals, folklore,-and otherelements of tradition, on which all depend the conti-nuity and cultural identity of the community and, in

the long run, its survival.If the proposed thesis is true, then there is

cause' for worry, having in mind what and how today'schildren play, especially in cities. They are notsufficiently acquainted with traditional gangs, andtheir general ludic tztivity is characterized by im-poverished content and structure. Among the games of

contemporary children, ball games are most popular.

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133,

It is also common for children, gathered in groups ofvarious sizes, to loiter around apartment buildings,in parking lots, in building entrance halls, playingroles of currently popular TV characters. The toysthey play with are most often made of -tificialmaterials, with plastic toy weapons taking the lead.

It is evident that children cannot find an abun-dance of stimulation which would enrich their gamesin their everyday surroundings; cramped contemporaryliving quarters are no more stimulating; games, the-refore, also lack content. Highly urbanized milieusoffer less and less opportunity for social contactwith adults and for participation in the realities oflife, as well as for the transmission of play expe-rience and tradition from one generation to another.This problem wasn't posed until recently, becausethere was a lot more intergenerational "mixing", thepopulation migrated less, whicn means there wasn't somuch tearing out of socio-cultural context, and therewas more time for play, which occured spontaneouslyand was encountered in the street, in courtyards, atparties and gatherings.

As contemporary families are torn out of theircontext and reduced the nucleus - parents and child- -

ren - traditional experience in education, which usedto be transmitted and cherished by older members ofthe extended family community, is disappearing. Thisphenomenon decreases the influence which the familyused to have in regard to one important social andcultural function - the transmission of games andplay experience to children. Concidering that thisfunction, as well as many other functions of the con-temporary family, is being taken over by preschoolinstitutions, it makes sense to ask whether our kin-dergartens are prepared to fulfill it in the domainof acquainting children with selected traditionalgames, to what extent anC in which ways.

In attempting to answer this question, we made around of kindergartens in Novi sad, observing child-ren at play and interviewing teachers; we also analy-zed the current "Programme of Educational Work withPreschool Children", as well as several collectionsof games, which are available to preschool teachers.

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134

We arrived at the general conclusion that didacticgames (as games which are created, in a sense, arti-ficially and with a certain objective) have almostentirely supressed traditional games. This can be ob-served both in games selected by the children them-selves and in games organized and direct by theteacher.

Although the "Programme for Kindergartens' stres-ses all sorts of activities in its introduction,underscoring play in particular, this is generallydone in a declarative way without specific instruc-tions about how to select and conduct games. It isparticularly conspicuous that traditional games arenot mentioned anywhere in the text of the Programme,although that was necessary. This fact is quite in-dicatory, especially if were aware of the fact thatpreschool teachers base their work prwdominantly, andeven exclusively, on this document which is obliga-tory for them.

As we see in the teacher and his personality thecreator of the entire educational effort, we feelthat his role in the processes of playing and learn-ing is very important. Namely, we have noted that thedecrease in the number of traditional games in ourkindergartens is effected by the teacher, his perso-nality, his own childhood, the socio-cultural milieuin which he grew up, as well as his wish to play withchildren and to act as a partner in games. We havenoticed that many more games are played by childrenwhose teachers have succeeded in applying all thealuable knowledge about the influence of play onchild development in their everyday work, so thatgames are always present, in classrooms as well as inthe courtyard, in dining room* and halls as well asin the gym, irrespectively of space and time.

With teachers who are aware of their role in theeducation of children, games are played from thegathering of children in the morning till their de-parture home and permeate the entire educational pro-cess. In kindergartens where play is encouraged,children are more spontaneous, more open, more readyto transmit the game rules to other children and,adults.

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A. 4J 35

g!

Certain teachers would, after some game which thechildren have accepted readily, give the children theassignment to ask their parents to teach them somegame which they had played when they were small. Butsuch examples are very few, just as there are lessand less spaces in which the older generation wouldplay or generally socialize with children.

We have also noticed that traditional games aremore common and varied in those. kindergartens wherethere is well established cooperation between thekindergarten staff and the grandparents, i.P., inthose territories where three generations live to-gether as families and where the influence of the,

oldest generation in education is still strong.As we have found about that there are few tradi-

tional games, or none at all, present in kinder-gartens, we turned to the content and conception, aswell as the methodic directions contained in thehandbooks with collections of games used by teachersin their work with preschool c' :ldren.

On the basis of an analysis F these handbooks, wenoted that there are more auther.tic traditional gamesin older editions of handbooks and game col-lections, while the new ones contain somewhat re-vised games - in rules, text, melody, or somethingthat's added. It should be noted that the older edi-tions of game collections are generally not availableto a great number of teachers, and there are by nowonly rare samples which can be found in the librariesof some kindergartens. It is also alarming that con-temporary handbooks often contain unimaginative sur-rogates for children's games which resemble in allrespects the procedures of traditional classroomwork, which certainly does not contribute to therealization of play in its essence.

Lie quite often encountered phenomena which includethe misuse of games. Traditional games and their con-tents become a means of practicing for performancesand official holiday celebrations, which means thatthey are demonstrative in character. In that way,games become mere formal exercises end lose sponta-neity, without which they cannot be treated as truegames.

138

This brief review and impressions on the use of'traditional games in our kindergartens are sufficientto show us that the state of affairs is alarming. Thedescription, however, is not typical only for kinder-gartens in Novi Sad, or in Yugoslavia as a whole, butapplies more generally worldwide.

Therefore, K.D. Utinski's thought pronounced moreths a century ago is still relevant. Criticizing thegame invented by F. F.-ebel, he said that it mighthave been better if he had "elaborated those child-ren's games which have already existed for centuries,and which are played alike by little Russian, theItalian, the Indian child on the banks of the Ganges,by our children and the children of ancient Greeksand Romans... The assignment of future educationaltheory is to pay attention to these popular games, toelaborate this rich source, and to organize them andtransform them into an extraordinary and powerfuleducational medium".

REFERENCES

Ivid I. (1983). Igrovne aktivnosti dece u razliditimkulturama: univerzalni aspekti i kulturne speci-fitntsti. Predtkolsko dete, 1-2, 13-18.

Kajoa R. (1979). Igre i Beograd: NolitKamenov E. (1983) Intelektualno vaspitanje kroz

igru. Beograd! Zavod za udtbenike.Marjanovid A. (1979). Stvaralattvo, igra i vaspitanje

predtkolskog deteta. Predtkolsko dete, 1-2,3-34.

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1 3 7

:Aleksindra Mar:Pinovid

As: THE PROTOCOL; FOR, THE iOLLECTION OFTRADITi-ONALAIAMES-

FORMAI tHit_pitempllopror SARIS AOUIRED'FROPCABULTINFORMERS'

1.0. INFORMATION AD OUT THE' RESEARCHER,1.1. Name and surname/'.2. Profession:1.3. Date of .interview

2.0. DESCRIPTIVE:FACTS ABOUT THE SETTLEMENT2.1. Gettleent

2.1.1 Name2.1.2 The type .C4 settlement

smaller. towm, town, muss settlement,biglatY, etc.)

2.2 Larger region'2.2.1 Nam:2.2.2.Typis of largei! region (community,

county, republic, etc.)2.3. InstitutiOn*for'children in the settlement

fOres6O4, -840601,eultural Institutions,cildrens OrgemizaiiOnsourtc.)

2.4. Types of families (prevailing traditionalfamilies,; nuclear families, :Families Antransition, tc)'

2.5. General conditions for play and game (freespace, streetn, play grounds, wasteland,etc.)

2.6. Adults passtimes (prevailing forms ofgettogethers, gases, sports, festivals,carneVali, TV, etc.)

3.Q. FACTS ASOUT'THE INFORMEROral-repOrt acquired from an adult/adults

3.1: Generation (grandparents, parents)3.2. Age3.3. Sex3.4. Profession

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74'

3.5..Educition3.6. How popular was the game in his (their)

Whof .

4.0. DESCRIPTiiikEKTO:40OUT THEAAMf.,(A memorandum for tha interview with theinformer)4.1. Title,of,tne gem!. (andpossible..yariations

in the title)4.2. Players

?,4* 4.2.1. Age4.2.2. Sex

4.3. Ine.,type:of game _(according,to,the...numberof players)4.3.1. Solitary

Two NlaYerf4.3.3Three_players,4.3.4. Other possibilities

4.4. Playing space (empty tipmcm, .playground,courtyard, corner, table, stage, etc.)

4.L. Pleying,tiTp. r4.5.4. TheAength,of playing time,4.5.2. Aietherm any particular time when

. the gems. ie played. time of day,,..!eation,of the ye4r

.4,6.. THE CORSE,OF THE.GAME.

':

4.6.1. Commencement of ,ttle. game (spon-!:

.teneus_agregment, a.formel invite-.,ion,to play, cr....Intihg off, some

other way to commence,the game and.distriputp.rc..01s).Rules.4or the. invitation to playand for. the commencement of thegame

4.6.2. The middlor Pert .0+`. VW' Pkiltir 4a dy-. . tailed- deszript i of eyerythi ng

. that. is done in, the,.course. of thegame)- what is spoken r- chentedl- the temporal -.sequence of thevarious stages of the game

vc.

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T.139NVf;.WPA4;t4,

, "`4

/4'

fictive situathe: fictive(imaginary) sgce, 5ictive (ima-ginary) time; roles: dominant,submissive, changes of roles;requisites: real; fictive (ima-ginary)the rules aa, Crap game: describethe rules of the game, the typesof rules: role-directed, forma-

.lizep; variations. in the rules

- the relationship between therules and the fictive situation(the degree 014 domination of oneor the ether element in theplaying field

4.6.3. The finale of thr game (describehow the game ends; the reasons forthe conclusion of the games for-mal, psychological; the rules forthe conclusion of the game)

4.7. Gains in the game (e.g., points, the rightto take on a new role, the right to take atoy, etc.)

4.8. Sanctions in the game (what must the loseror transgressor do or give)

4.9. Describe the possible variations in thegame (underline the changing elements invariations ref the same game)

5.0. THE ORIGIN OF THEGAME5.1. Traditional game (in the sense of trans-

mission over the generation:.; if possible,describe the connections that this gamemight have with the other products offolklore and culture, with religions his-tory, myths, rituals, etr..; data, if enis-ting, about the transfer of this game fromsome other culture, and when this h i-nened,

5.2. New game appearing in the informer'schildhood

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6.0. TOYS6.1. Name of toy (toys) used in this game6.2. The origin of the toys

6.2.1. Traditional6.2.2. New in the informer's childhood

6.3. Type of toy (art, sports requisiti, mobiletoy, mechanical, etc.)

6.4. Manufacture !hand-made, industrial, child--made, etc.)

6.5. Material (wood, textile, plastic, naturalmaterial, etc.)

6.6. Make a sketch of the traditional toy

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;141

Al eksandra MarJanovid

A. THE PROTOCOL FOR THE COLLECTION OFTRADITIONAL GAMES

FORM A2 - THE DESCRIPTION OF OBSERVED GAMES

1.0. INFORMATION ABOUT THE RESEARCHER1.1. Name and surname1.2. Profession1.3. Date of observation

2.0. DESCRIPTIVE FACTS ABOUT THE SETTLEMENT2.1. Settlement

2.1.1 Name2.1.2 The type of settlement (village,

smaller town, town, new settlement,big city, etc.)

2.2 Larger region2.2.1 Name2.2.2 Type of larger region (community,

county, republic, etc.)2.3. Institution for children in the settlement

(preschool, school, cultural institutions,children's organizations, etc.>

2.4. Types of families (prevailing traditionalfamilies, nuclear families, families intransition, etc)

2.5. General conditions for play and game (freespace, streets, play grounds, wasteland,etc.>

2.6. Adults passtimes (prevailing forms of;ettogethers, games, sports, festivals,carnevals, TV, etc.)

3.0. FACTS ABOUT THE INFORMER (THE SOURCE OFINFORMATION)

3.1.1. Observation of spontaneous game--playing by a child/children

3.1.2. Oral report about the game obtain-ed from the child/children

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3.1.3. Gbservation of the game played atthe request of the researcher

3.2. Facts about the children (who are playingthe.game, or giving ihformation about thegame)3.2.1. Age3.2.2. Sex3.2.3. Educational institution enrolled

in (kindergarten, school and gra-de, other)

3.2.4. Attitude toward the game3.2.4.1. Do they play the game

always/often3.2.4.2. Do they play the game

sometimes3.2.4.3. Do they just know the

game, without playing it3.2.4.4. Who taught them the game

4.0. DESCRIPTIVE FACTS ABOUT THE SAME4.1. Title of the game (and possible variations

in the title)4.2. Players

4.2.1. Age4.2.2. Sex

4.3. The type of game (according to the numberof players)4.3.1. Solitary4.3.2. Two players4.3.3. Three players4.3.4. Other possibilities

4.4. Playing space (empty space, playground,courtyard, corner, table, stage, etc.)

4.5. Playing time4.5.1. The length of playing time4.5.2. Is there any particular time when

the game is played (time of day,season of the year)

5.0. THE COURSE OF THE SAME

5.1. Commencement of the game (spontaneus agre-ement, a formal invitation to play, coun-

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143

ting off, other methods for the distribu-tion of roles, rules for the invitation toplay)

5.2. The middle part of the game (a detaileddescription of everything that the child-ren do in the course of the game)- what they speak- the temporal sequence of the various

stages of the gamefictive situations: Fictive (imagina-ry) space; fictive (imaginary) time;roles: dominant, submissive, changes ofroles; requisites: real, fictive(imaginary)the rules of the game: describe therules of the game; the types of rules:role-directed, formalized; variationsin the rules

- the relationship between the rules andthe fictive situation (the degree ofinterdependence, therdegree of 'domina-tion of one Or the other element in theplaying field)

5.3. The finale of the game (describe how thegame ends, the reasons for the conclusionof the game: formal or psychological; therules for the conclusi,a n of the game)

5.4. Gains in the game (e.g., points, the rightto take on a new role, the right to take atoy, etc.)

5.5. Sanctions in the game (what must the loseror transgressor do or give)

6.0. COMMUNICATION BETWEEN TIE PLAYERS6.1. In the plane of the game (what kinds of

social pehevior and behavidral norms doesthe game ImpOse)

6.2. In a realistic plane (the real relation-ships between the children at play; thedomination of certain children, submis-sion, cbnflict, psychological determinantsin the distribution of roles, the satis-

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144

faction / dissatisfaction of particularplayers, etc.)

7.0. Describe the possible variations in the game(underline the changing elements in the varia-tions of the same game)

8.0. THE ORIGIN OF THE GAME8.1. Traditional game (in the sense of trans-

mission over the generations; if possible,describe the transfer of this game fromanother culture, and its connection to theother products of folklore and culture:religion, history, myth, etc.)

8.2. New variations of a traditional game (givtia detailed description of the inovations)

8.3. New game (appeared in the present genera-tion of children)

8.4. Invention

9.0. TOY (TOYS), used in the game9.1. Name of toy (toys)9.2. Origin of the toy

9.2.1. Traditional9.2.2. New

9.3. Type of toy (art, sports requisite, mobiletoy, mechanical, etc.)

9.4. Manufacture9.4.1. Hand-made9.4.2. Industrial9.4.3. Made by the children themselves

9.5. Material (wood, textile, plastic, natural

material, etc.)9.6. Function of the toy in the game (descrip-

tion of the function, fixed function, ver-satile function)

9.7. Make sketch of thr: traditional toy

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'4)

B. EXPLANATION OF THE PROTOCOL (FORMS Al AND A2)

1. There are three possible sorces for the collect'onof traditional games with rules:

a) observation and recording of the games childrenplay in the placez where they gather,

b) information about popular games obtained fromthe children themselves,

c) information about games obtained from adults.All three of the sources should be used in the

research. That is why the "Protocol for the Collec-tion of Traditional Games (Forms Al and A2)" has beenso constructed as to allow its implementation in allof the three alternatives.

2. Form A2 is employed in the first two of the al-ternatives.

a) It is very important to observe what the child-ren actually play when they gather and when they areout of adult control. That is how we discover thegames that constitute a vital part of the childhoodculture. Besides, the bulk of these games can hecompared with the bulk of the traditional games,which are known in a given culture, but are not beingactively played by the children any more. Such an in-tercorrelation of the obtained information enables usto investigate the important sociocultural processeswhich influence the playing behavior of children, andthrough that, their entire development.

b) The tentative research of traditional games hasshown that the children know many games, which theydon't, otherwise, play. This fact is interesting andindicative. That is why the research should includethe interview with a number of children about thegames they know, and perhaps they should be requestedto enact these in front of the researcher.

c) The observation of the children's playing acti-vities should be performed in the following way: a)select the places where children's playing can be

aobserved; b) determine the size and compositicn- ofthe sample 04 children; observe and record only the

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traditional games, and not all the playing activitiesthat occur at the place of observation.

3. Descriptive facts about the game. It is wellknown that the commonly perceived elements of a phe-nomena are those that are deemed to be important.Forms Al and A2 stress important structural elementsof the game, which will be indispensible for thevarious kinds of analyses of children's traditional.games. It should be noted that this part of the pro-tocol serves as a memorandum for the researcher,while ell that happens in a game should be recor-ded. The. objective of research is to give a des-cription ofthe game which would be as detailed aspossible, regardless of whether it is observed orobtained by word of ,mouth from the children.

In the description of the course.of the game, allelements should bR recorded into detail:

a) Note in detail all kinds of commencements ofthe game. Counting off and other verbal forms may berecorded, on tape.

b) A game takes place as a sequence of Children'sactivities. All these activities should be recorded.Also., record everything that the children speak atthe time, whether it be a formula of the game, orspontaneous speech, which occurs in many games. Thesongs the children chant, if existing, should also benoted down.

c) Fictive space andreal

time appear in thegame as a contrast to real space and time. Thus,children may imagine the battlefield, the Wild West,home, a kingdom, a spaceship, the jungle, etc., Justas the game may be located in historical time, inanother season of the year, at night, etc.

d) Roles should be described in detail, especiallyif they are opposeC, as oppositions are importanteructural elements of play. Imaginary roles, ifexisting, should also by noted down, as sometimes achild, or an entire.group of children, imagine theoppositional forces .(the so-called enemy) or thepartners.

e) In addition to the real requisitesof .the game(toys, materials), imaginary requisites should ,alsobe recorded. E.g.., one child possesses a "golden

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apple", and the other, a "golden pear"; the playershave to choose between the two imaginary requisites.

f) The rules of the game may be imbedded in therole, which is the case with many traditional, games,or they may be formaliied to a greater extent, simi-larly to sports regulations. In addition to ,a detail-ed, description of the game, this difference shouldbe stressed, as it indicat .&s the degree.of saturationof the game with symbolical elements, which, in turn,has to be considered in the classification of gamerIt may occur that the children vary the rules of thegame, which should ba noted. The variations should bedescribed in detail.

4. Communication between the children during thecourse of the game. In games, there are two levels ofcommunication between the players: a) one is set bythe fictive situation, the roles and the rules of thegame, and b) the other, by the actual relationshipsbetween the children, or by the moods that occur !.n

the course of the game. Both these levels are equallyimportant for the children, as social experience.While recording the game, the two levels should bekept apart, and should be described equally well.

5. Children's play in general and traditionalchildren's games in particular are immanently his-torical, social and cultural phenomena. The types ofchildren's games, the way of playing, depend on thecivilizational processes, the general social rela-tionship, the type of culture and the place of playand games in it, the types and relationships in thefamilies, the place of children as a social group inthe society, the prevailing type of educat;on and thedominant relationship between children and adults.

The societies and cultures differ among themselvesgreatly according to the play in general and, to tra-ditional games in particular; but, under the influen-ce of historical and social processes, in one and thesame society and culture the play and games are ex-posed to permanent changes.

To know more about children's play and games,about children of today themselves, it is importantto collect and research traditional children's gamesin the historical, social and cultural context.

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Therefore it is necessary to adopt the so called"rich interpretation" (opposed to "writtinggrammar"), a methodological procedure developed inresearches of children's communication and talking.This procedure, of course, has to be adapted to thesubject of research in the project "Anthologies ofTraditional Children's Games". The items in theprotocols concerning the facts about the settlementwhere the observed games take place, are formulatedfor that purpose.

b) Some very important historical, social andcultural aspects are hardly possible to formulate asan item in the protocol. Therefore it is very impor-tant to make rich descriptions about the degree ofthe institutionalization of children's life and edu-cation, of the general social attitude toward child-ren's play (encouraging, negative, indifferent,etc.), about the types of families and the prevailingsocial strata the families belong, of the types ofadult's culture, specially their passtimes, and howmuch the children join and are involved in variousforms of adults' passtimes. It is necessary that thedescriptions are done in such a way to enable thelatter analyses to establish different relationshipsbetween the "text" (traditional game) and its"context" (historical, social and cultural).

6. Form Al is used as an interview with adultinformers. It contains the same elements as Form A2.It differs in following elements:

a) There are some differences in the facts aboutthe informers.

b) It is necessary to collect the facts about thesettlement to which the adult informer (i.e., thetraditional game) belongs, on two levels: the pre-sent and the past. That means that in connection withall items, the present situation and how it was inthe past when the informer was a child, should bedescribed. Data collected in such a way will makepossible to trace the changes which took place in thetime tFat devides generations.

c) It does not contain the paragraph about thecommunication between the players.

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