Anthropology Class Explores Childhood Games and Play

On the Monday morning after spring break, students in Dr. Jack Bartholomew’s Anthropology of Childhood Games and Play class eased back into the academic routine by playing an assortment of traditional games that they have been studying — including quoits, queek, tiddlywinks, pick-up sticks, jacks, dominoes, and more.

“Children have played games since the dawn of humankind, representing ways in which they had fun, socialized, learned norms, and collaborated — establishing social expectations, experiencing independence, creativity, and pushing behavioral boundaries,” said Dr. Bartholomew.

This Advanced Seminar course, open to 11^th and 12^th Grade students, introduces anthropology (especially socio-cultural anthropology) as a field of study, applying it to understand the nature of play and games in various cultures/societies in diverse geographical regions and eras. In the class, students are exploring the nature of childhood and play, and how similar games are realized in different ways — and what this tells us about other (and our own) cultures.