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Full-Text Articles in Anthropology
Play Patterns And Gender, Carolyn P. Edwards, Lisa Knoche, Asiye Kumru
Play Patterns And Gender, Carolyn P. Edwards, Lisa Knoche, Asiye Kumru
Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications
This cross-cultural analysis examines the gendered patterns of play seen in children worldwide. Play is a culturally universal activity through which children explore themselves and their environment, test out and practice different social roles, and learn to interact with other children and adults. Early in life, children identify themselves as a “girl” or a “boy,” and this basic self-categorization lays a foundation for their developing beliefs about with whom, what, how, and where they will play. Children play an active role in their own and their peers’ “gender socialization” (the process by which they come to acquire the knowledge, values, …