The paper aims to address the inspiring question of how and when children played in a spontaneous way and with self-made artefacts in Classical antiquity, as long as it is possible to recognize toys self-made by infants. Actually, we know that in the Greek and Roman world, as it happens still now, most of the toys were thought and manufactured by adult community to convey a message to their offspring about the roles they would have been called to play within the society (good bride and mother for girls, brave warrior and active citizen for boys). Nevertheless, as Sally Crawford argued [Crawford 2009], any object may become a toy in the hands of a child. The challenge is how to identify this toy-stage in the biography of ancient artefacts and to try to understand what children might have experienced by playing spontaneously. The paper aims to bring up an issue which has been suffering from lack of attention for a long time, by discussing literary sources and presenting some intriguing archaeological contexts.

Playful Children and their Creations: New Insights on Infants’ Spontaneous Play in the Ancient Greek World / C. Lambrugo. ((Intervento presentato al convegno Locus Ludi tenutosi a Fribourg nel 2021.

Playful Children and their Creations: New Insights on Infants’ Spontaneous Play in the Ancient Greek World

C. Lambrugo
2021

Abstract

The paper aims to address the inspiring question of how and when children played in a spontaneous way and with self-made artefacts in Classical antiquity, as long as it is possible to recognize toys self-made by infants. Actually, we know that in the Greek and Roman world, as it happens still now, most of the toys were thought and manufactured by adult community to convey a message to their offspring about the roles they would have been called to play within the society (good bride and mother for girls, brave warrior and active citizen for boys). Nevertheless, as Sally Crawford argued [Crawford 2009], any object may become a toy in the hands of a child. The challenge is how to identify this toy-stage in the biography of ancient artefacts and to try to understand what children might have experienced by playing spontaneously. The paper aims to bring up an issue which has been suffering from lack of attention for a long time, by discussing literary sources and presenting some intriguing archaeological contexts.
19-mag-2021
Spontaneous Play; Greek Children; toy; game
Settore L-ANT/07 - Archeologia Classica
Settore L-FIL-LET/02 - Lingua e Letteratura Greca
Université de Fribourg
European Research Council
Playful Children and their Creations: New Insights on Infants’ Spontaneous Play in the Ancient Greek World / C. Lambrugo. ((Intervento presentato al convegno Locus Ludi tenutosi a Fribourg nel 2021.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/845480
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