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Article: Sports
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Sports
Children's play and children's games have always been an important part of a culture. The role and social significance of that play, however, varied according to its historical context. Often the games and play were just that
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"play" for the purpose of pleasure, entertainment, and diversion. When given unstructured time or even during their daily chores, children likely throughout history have created games that involved footraces and throwing contests or that otherwise mimicked the adult activity around them, all of which could be considered sport.
Youth Sport in the Ancient World and Medieval Europe
Sometimes games were designed to teach socially approved gender roles, ...