Chapter 6: How Do We Make Meaning?

Front 1

play

Back 1

A framing (or orienting) that is (1) consciously adopted by the players, (2) somehow pleasurable, and (3) systematically related to what is non play by alluding to the non play world and by transforming the objects, roles, actions, and relations of ends and means characteristic of the non play world.

Front 2

meta-communication

Back 2

Communicating about the process of communicating

Front 3

framing

Back 3

A cognitive boundary that marks certain behaviors as "play" or as "ordinary life."

Front 4

reflexivity

Back 4

Critically thinking about the way one thinks; reflecting on one's own experience.

Front 5

sport

Back 5

A physically exertive activity that is aggressively competitive within constraints imposed by definitions and rules. Sport is a component of culture that is ritually patterned and game like and consists of varying amounts of play, work, and leisure.

Front 6

art

Back 6

Play with form producing some aesthetically successful transformation-representation.

Front 7

transformation-representation

Back 7

The process in which experience is transformed as it is represented symbolically in a different medium.

Front 8

myths

Back 8

Stories that recount how various aspects of the world came to be the way they are. The power of myths comes from their ability to make life meaningful for those who accept them. The truth of myths seems self-evident because they effectively integrate personal experiences with a wider set of assumptions about how the world works.

Front 9

orthodoxy

Back 9

"Correct doctrine"; the prohibition of deviation from approved mythic texts.

Front 10

ritual

Back 10

A repetitive social practice composed of a sequence of symbolic activities in the form of dance, song, speech, gestures, or the manipulation of objects, adhering to a culturally defined ritual schema and closely connected to a specific set of ideas that are often encoded in myth.

Front 11

rite of passage

Back 11

A ritual that serves to mark the movement and transformation of an individual from one social position to another.

Front 12

liminality

Back 12

The ambiguous transitional state in a rite of passage in which the person or persons undergoing the ritual are outside their ordinary social positions.

Front 13

communitas

Back 13

As unstructured or minimally structured community of equal individuals found frequently in rites of passage.

Front 14

orthopraxy

Back 14

"Correct practice"; the prohibition of deviation from approved forms of ritual behavior.