Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Maps, family trees, figures, and tables
- Acknowledgments
- Note on transcriptions
- Epigraph
- Prologue
- 1 On being long in company
- 2 A boy finds his mama(s)
- 3 The closeness of strangers
- 4 Embracing talk
- 5 Lines of vision
- 6 The hand of play
- 7 Ways with time and words
- 8 Shaping the mainstream
- Epilogue
- Appendix A Ethnography as biography and autobiography
- Appendix B On methods of social history and ethnography
- Notes to text
- References
- Index
6 - The hand of play
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Maps, family trees, figures, and tables
- Acknowledgments
- Note on transcriptions
- Epigraph
- Prologue
- 1 On being long in company
- 2 A boy finds his mama(s)
- 3 The closeness of strangers
- 4 Embracing talk
- 5 Lines of vision
- 6 The hand of play
- 7 Ways with time and words
- 8 Shaping the mainstream
- Epilogue
- Appendix A Ethnography as biography and autobiography
- Appendix B On methods of social history and ethnography
- Notes to text
- References
- Index
Summary
Six-year-old Martha clutches a paper bag filled with leaves, pinecones, and pine needles she and her mother, Catherine, have collected on their Saturday morning visit to the neighborhood park. When they arrive home, Martha lays her trophies out on the kitchen table while Catherine prepares lunch. Martha’s colored pencils are scattered in front of her as she traces the largest leaf from her collection. Her mom leans over her work, asking: “Do we have two of those leaves? Is there another one here that’s smaller? Let’s look.” Martha runs to find her magnifying glass. She and her mother study the two leaves.
Martha notes: “See, that part [pointing alternately to the veins in the two leaves] does look alike, but not the stem.” Her mother agrees and suggests that the difference in the age of the two trees from which the leaves came might have made that difference. Pushing her lunch aside, Martha hums to herself and continues her tracing. Later that afternoon, she tears the two leaves she has traced into the “stew” she is preparing for her collection of stuffed animals.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Words at Work and PlayThree Decades in Family and Community Life, pp. 105 - 127Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012