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Accepted Paper:

Things in the making: playing with imitation  
Petra Tjitske Kalshoven (University of Manchester)

Paper short abstract:

Drawing on the imitative practice of ‘Indianism’, an amateur pursuit in Europe involving replica-making and reenactment, and on theories of play, I argue that play’s low ontological status in the modern Western world is due to its intricate relationship with imitation.

Paper long abstract:

Extolled by Friedrich Schiller, who claimed that 'Man is only fully a human being when he plays', play as an adult activity has enjoyed a less than enviable status in the West of modern times. According to theorists of play, this was not always the case, and in many a non-Western context, play is said to remain a societal force.

Play is about 'as if' situations and about make-believe; it is predicated on imitation. Drawing on fieldwork among 'Indianists', amateurs interested in re-experiencing nineteenth-century Native American life through replica-making and reenactment (which they compare to experimental archaeology), I will argue that Indianist heuristic practice is accorded a low status at least partly because of its intricate relationship with imitation. Even within Indianism itself, pretense and make-believe are regarded with suspicion, and many practitioners stress that theirs is a heartfelt involvement, rather than a matter of superficial gesturing involving 'fakes' that are devoid of sincerity or authenticity. At the root of this uneasiness is a lingering mind-body dichotomy that associates the body with appearance and the mind with essence.

In an attempt to overcome the divide between original and copy, some theorists seek to collapse the two, arguing that every copy is an original, while others focus on processual aspects of imitation instead of on finished products. Approaching imitation through the concept of play, I will explore how taking pleasure in making 'things' may serve to straddle original-copy and mind-body divides.

Panel P12
Something borrowed, something new? Practices and politics of imitation
  Session 1