Johan Huizinga was a Dutch chronicler and one of the owners of contemporary cultural background.
In 1938 he built up the theory that humans playing in some way is primordially essential to bring to life society and culture, although not singularly essential, yet necessary.
The author places under the microscopic lense the notion of play via the lenses of language, world, law, war, knowledge, literary works, verse, viewpoint and art.
The point he wishes to make is that play adds to all of these, in a core method, however that likewise we need to open our mind to what play actually indicates. He expands upon the standard definition made use of today, to enable play to indicate not just that which brings us pleasure or is pain-free, but boils it to five features:
- Play is complimentary or one may even say freedom
- Play is not regular daily life, not ordinary
- Play varies from “average” life in regards to both locality and period
- Play is structured and orderly, it has rules
- Play is not connected to material earnings