@article{1386644,
      recid = {1386644},
      author = {Burghardt, Gordon M.,},
      title = {The genesis of animal play : testing the limits /},
      publisher = {MIT Press,},
      address = {Cambridge, Mass. :},
      pages = {1 online resource (xvi, 501 pages) :},
      year = {2005},
      abstract = {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.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1386644},
}