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CHOICE Review

These 25 essays constitute the seventh edited publication of the proceedings of the Association for the Anthropological Study of Play. Following a multidisciplinary approach in a relatively new field in which no consistently accepted definitions exist, this book includes papers of widely varying styles and approaches. Some essays are in themselves playful (e.g., the comparison of a pig sacrifice on Borneo to knighthood investiture at Buckingham Palace, or the analysis of a West Indian wake). Statistical-theoretical studies correlate children's play activities with creativity and with other aspects of maturation and growth, placing play in an ethnographic perspective. Elements of play are demonstrated in various kinds of literature, and in secular rituals such as public baths and annual carnivals. Sports and games, questionably distinguished from play, are analyzed in various ways. The volume concludes with a survey of progress in the study of play, with suggestions for future research. These essays will be of vital interest to advanced undergraduates and graduate students who pursue the behavioral study of play and related activities; most other readers may not get beyond the initial essays. Bibliographies are extensive and should be most valuable to students of play.-H.L. Harris, Western Washington University