Chapter 10: Play and Gender Issues in Rural and Urban Brazilian Contexts

Girls in Brazil, similar to the little Parakanã¹ Indian girl from the above example, go through a good part of their time absorbed with playing activities, like those in any other country. Some of these children’s play appears to be universal, like the ones that involve make-believe related to motherly care, while other games that are so common in the western world, such as circle games, are not always found in other places. The objective of this chapter is to show the relationship between the universality and the distinctiveness of the girls playing, regarding the context of cultural practices, through examples drawn from research that took place in different regions of the country.