Playing with Things : the Archaeology, Anthropology and Ethnography of Human-Object Interactions in Atlantic Scotland.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright information -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Chapter 1 -- Introduction -- A heuristic study -- This study -- The Study Area -- The archaeology of play -- What is Play? -- Archaeology and Play -- Themes and Results of this study -- Bricolage -- Placement -- Extended Cognition -- Agency and Play -- Awkward Objects -- Play and the world -- Chapter 2 -- Playing Chess -- Introduction -- The rules of Chess -- Some Chess Background -- Chess and Cognition -- Chess and Memory -- Memory in Action -- Thinking with things -- Accounting for the Opponent -- Materiality -- Agency and Chess -- Action by Proxy -- Performing Chess -- Chapter 3 -- Playing Euchre -- Introduction -- Euchre in its Context -- Risk -- Rules as Paths -- Playing Euchre -- The History and Rules of Euchre -- Scoring at Euchre -- Playing Euchre on Westray -- The place of Euchre in Westray -- The Players -- How to win at Euchre -- Following the Cards -- Westray: A brief Introduction -- Location -- Economy -- The Church -- Risk Management -- Farming on Westray -- Rules for Farming -- Selling Animals -- Farming regulations -- Farming with animals -- Success and Failure/Bigger and Smaller on Westray -- Back to the Euchre: Following not Leading -- Cognition, Cards and Cows -- Following Rules, Taking Directions. -- Chapter 4 -- Counters -- Introduction -- Sets -- Bricolage -- Art Bricolage -- Found Objects -- Shetland Counters -- Chapter 5 -- Dice -- Introduction -- Following Dice -- Play and Ritual -- Ritual and play -- Parallelopiped Dice -- Dating, Context, Condition -- Dating -- Context -- Condition -- Numbers -- How the Dice Were Used -- Rolling, throwing, placing -- Atlantic Scotland during the Late Iron Age -- Brochs -- Wheelhouses -- Souterrains -- Broch, Wheelhouse, Souterrain -- Changing Architecture -- Changing Artefacts -- Changing Economies.

Some Reasons for Change -- Discussion -- Parallelopiped dice in their wider context -- Parallelopiped dice in their local context -- Dice, Play, Ritual -- Chapter 6 -- Tafl -- Literary Sources -- Tafl in Atlantic Scotland -- From Notation to Action by Proxy -- The archaeology of Tafl -- Learning to play at Inchmarnock -- Playing Tafl with Brochs -- Buried Tafl -- Chapter 7 -- Awkward Objects -- Awkward Objects -- Awkward Type 1: Found Objects -- Awkward Type 2: Surface Treatment: Painted Pebbles and Shetland Discs -- Painted Pebbles -- Shetland Discs -- Awkward Type 3: The Wrong Context -- Finally: some very awkward objects -- Chapter 8 -- Final Discussion -- Chess and Euchre -- Archaeology and Play -- Revisiting Huizinga -- Playing with things -- References.

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. Via a series of archaeological, anthropological and ethnographic investigations, it leads towards the conclusion that play is not in fact so separate as is often assumed.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.