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The Genesis of Animal Play: Testing the Limits
Open accessAbstract
In The Genesis of Animal Play, Gordon Burghardt examines the origins and evolution of play in humans and animals. He asks what play might mean in our understanding of evolution, the brain, behavioral organization, and psychology. Is play essential to development? Is it the driving force behind human and animal behavior? What is the proper place for the study of play in the cognitive, behavioral, and biological sciences? The engaging nature of play—who does not enjoy watching a kitten attack a ball of yarn?—has made it difficult to study. Some scholars have called play undefinable, nonexistent, or a mystery outside the realm of scientific analysis. Using the comparative perspectives of ethology and psychology, The Genesis of Animal Play goes further than other studies in reviewing the evidence of play throughout the animal kingdom, from human babies to animals not usually considered playful. Burghardt finds that although playfulness may have been essential to the origin of much that we consider distinctive in human (and mammalian) behavior, it only develops through a specific set of interactions among developmental, evolutionary, ecological, and physiological processes. Furthermore, play is not always beneficial or adaptive. Part I offers a detailed discussion of play in placental mammals (including children) and develops an integrative framework called surplus resource theory. The most fascinating and most controversial sections of the book, perhaps, are in the seven chapters in part II in which Burghardt presents evidence of playfulness in such unexpected groups of animals as kangaroos, birds, lizards, and "Fish That Leap, Juggle, and Tease." Burghardt concludes by considering the implications of the diversity of play for future research, and suggests that understanding the origin and development of play can shape our view of society and its accomplishments through history. The open access edition of this book was made possible by generous funding from Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.
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“Social play (also referred to as play-fighting or rough-and-tumble play) is predominantly displayed among juveniles of both sexes across many mammalian species (Bekoff and Byers, 1998; Pellis and Iwaniuk, 2000; Burghardt, 2005).”
From Sex-specific modulation of juvenile social play behavior by vasopressin and oxytocin depends on social context (2014) · cites this paper as Burghardt, 2005
In the citing paper
“Playful contexts produce different types of play (e.g., solitary and/or social play) which are characterized by repeated yet non-stereotypic sequences of behavior (Burghardt, 2005).”
From Play in Rats: Association across Contexts and Types, and Analysis of Structure (2014) · cites this paper as Burghardt, 2005
In the citing paper
“supporting the theory that different types of play may have had independent evolutionary origins and trajectories (Burghardt, 2005).”
From Play in Rats: Association across Contexts and Types, and Analysis of Structure (2014) · cites this paper as Burghardt, 2005
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“Many (conflicting) definitions: Play has been a subject of serious study for well over a century, but researchers examining play have failed to come to consensus on a definition of what constitutes play (Burghardt 2005).”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Burghardt, G. M.
- Corresponding author
- Burghardt, Gordon M.
- ORCID
- Burghardt, Gordon M.
- Venue
- The MIT Press eBooks
- Publisher
- The MIT Press
- Published
- 2005-02-04
- OpenAlex
- W4235808493
- Cited by
- 1,094
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 47 · 2025: 80 · 2024: 53 · 2023: 73 · 2022: 71 · 2021: 59 · 2020: 60 · 2019: 97 · 2018: 84 · 2017: 64 · 2016: 51 · 2015: 61 · 2014: 64 · 2013: 39 · 2012: 36
- FWCI
- 19.86
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The MIT Press eBooks (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- animal play, evolution of play, playfulness, placental mammals, human development, comparative ethology
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