This book brings together ways of considering play to probe its essential relationship to work, ritual, and communitas. The book examines the causes, consequences, and contexts of play. Focusing on five contexts for play—the psyche, the human body, the environment, society, and culture—the book identifies conditions that instigate play, and comments on its implications for those settings. The book explores how we learn about ourselves and the world, and about the intersection of these two realms, through acts of play. Offering a general theory of play as behavior promoting self-realization, it articulates a conception of self that includes individual and social identity, particular and transcendent connection, and multiple fields of involvement. It also evaluates play styles from history and contemporary life to analyze the relationship between play and human freedom. The book shows how play allows us to learn about our qualities and those of the world around us—and in so doing make sense of ourselves.