In 2009, Thomas Malaby suggested that, while anthropology has historically neglected play as a topic of interrogation, the discipline actually has quite a bit to say about it. He suggested that we explore play as a disposition rather than, or at least in addition to, an activity. This allows us to see the role that play has in finding meaning in our social worlds as well as its fundamental role in shaping those worlds. This panel explores play as a disposition in multiple ways. Papers in this panel ask what play reveals about larger sociocultural phenomenon. These include, how sport can link nation and identity among Indigenous peoples in the Pacific Northwest, what tabletop role playing games reveals about the production of gender among Gen Z Americans, and how live action role play can create space for the production and subversion of cultural norms.

References:
Malaby, Thomas. 2009. "Anthropology and Play: The Contours of Playful Experience." New Literary History 40(1):205-218.

This research explores the evolving demographics of the tabletop role-playing game of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) and the rise of participation by women in the decades following its release. The moral panic of the 1980s and 1990s and the religious societal pressures inhibited women’s involvement in the game. This paper uses Douglas’s framework of purity to interrogate the decline of Christian dominance within American culture and its effects on women’s roles and participation within D&D. Based on an analysis of various forms of media, this paper explores how the regression of religious security has allowed for women to venture more into the D&D community and the effects this has had on gender expression today.

Sport is seen as one of the most emotional forms of cultural integration at the local and national levels. Whether it is a “national pastime” like baseball for the US or hockey for Canada, sport provides a way for creating and maintaining a national identity. This paper explores canoe racing as a sport that unites the Coast Salish First Nations of Washington and British Columbia. I query how the summer canoe racing circuit enables participants to forge a national identity despite the international border that divides their nations. Canoe racing serves to foster identity at the local, regional, and (inter)national levels by drawing on longstanding resistance to federal policies that sought to eliminate Indigenous presence.

The concepts of sex and gender have historically been linked through the manifestation of gendered bodies. In the past few decades, the concepts of sex and gender have been challenged to describe the difference between the physical and nonphysical. In Table-Top Role Playing Games, (TTRPGs), both concepts exist concerning the characters constructed by the players or the Dungeon Master (DM). However, due to the nonphysical nature of being played through the style of Theater of the Mind, the sex of the character does not exist in physical space but in the mind of the player who manifests their character through their performance. This case study interrogates both the relationships between players and their characters, as well as their interactions with other non-corporeal beings in the game and the creation and performance of gender roles in the absence of physical sex.

Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) serves as a site of cultural reproduction and a space for subversion, where players engage in the performance of identity through fictional personas. This study examines how gender is constructed, performed, and negotiated within LARP communities, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and surveys from players. Using Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity and Sherry Ortner’s critique of gendered dichotomies in culture, this research explores the extent to which LARPing reinforces traditional gender norms or allows for experimentation. Special attention is given to the experiences of women, nonbinary, and transgender players, as well as the ways in which costume, narrative structures, and in-game power dynamics shape gendered experiences. Ultimately, this study highlights LARP’s potential as both a site of constraint and liberation in the ongoing negotiation of gender in contemporary subcultures.