This book addresses the nature of play and its relationships with the
world, as well as the relationships between people and objects. It
begins with an account of ethnographic fieldwork among chess and card
players in Edinburgh and Orkney and moves on to consider the findings in
the light of archaeological sources. The work carried out amongst chess
and card players led towards a more cognitive appreciation of these
activities: how can the relationships between player and pieces be
understood? It is suggested here that they are an example of 'active
externalism', where cognition is not contained within the person but
distributed in the immediate environment. The consideration of the role
of gaming pieces leads towards an examination of the ways in which the
manipulation of objects during play brings new and unexpected
discoveries to the participants. The discussion addresses this theme in
terms of bricolage and considers the placement of things singly and in
sets. The archaeological review focusses for the most part on the first
millennium AD in Atlantic Scotland. The nature of the evidence, and of
our expectations of where play should be found, is examined critically.
This study represents a reappraisal of the relationship between play -
an activity which is most often understood in terms of something 'set
apart' - and everyday life; it leads towards the conclusion that play is
not in fact so separate as is often assumed.
