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. 
 

I The Nature of Play 1

1 Play: Many Meanings, Few Answers

2 Footprints in the Sand: The Origins and Radiation of Play Theory 21

3 Defining Play: Can We Stop Playing Around? 45

4 A Guide to the Diversity of Play 83

5 Nothing Is Simple: Studying the Hows and Whys of Play 111

6 The Genesis of Play: An Integrative Approach 151

II The Phylogeny of Play 181

7 The Path through the Major Evolutionary Landscapes 183

8 Play in the Placental Mammals 191

9 The Alternate Radiation: Play in Marsupials 213

10 Does the Platypus Play? 235

11 Play Is for the Birds Too 243

12 The Cool Reptiles 277

13 The Origins of Vertebrate Play: Fish That Leap, Juggle, and Tease 309

14 Play at the Margins: Invertebrates 359

15 The Legacy and Future of Play 381 
 

Gordon Burghardt is Alumni Distinguished Professor in Psychology and in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee. He is a coeditor of The Cognitive Animal (MIT Press, 2002), past president of the Animal Behavior Society, and editor of the Journal of Comparative Psychology.

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