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77-406: They were a donor to The Toy Bank charity. In 2003, sidewalk chalk manufactured by Agglo was subject to a recall due to its high lead level. This article about a toy company is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Chinese corporation or company article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Toy A toy or plaything is an object that

154-792: A fort with empty cereal boxes and tissue paper spools, or a toddler playing with a broken TV remote control. The term "toy" can also be used to refer to utilitarian objects purchased for enjoyment rather than need, or for expensive necessities for which a large fraction of the cost represents its ability to provide enjoyment to the owner, such as luxury cars, high-end motorcycles, gaming computers, and flagship smartphones. Playing with toys can be an enjoyable way of training young children for life experiences. Different materials like wood, clay, paper, and plastic are used to make toys. Newer forms of toys include interactive digital entertainment and smart toys . Some toys are produced primarily as collectors' items and are intended for display only. The origin of toys

231-527: A large and important part of human existence, the toy industry has a substantial economic impact. Sales of toys often increase around holidays where gift-giving is a tradition. Some of these holidays include Christmas, Easter, Saint Nicholas Day , and Three Kings Day . In 2005, toy sales in the United States totaled about $ 22.9 billion. Money spent on children between the ages of 8 and twelve alone totals approximately $ 221 million annually in

308-408: A model Noah's Ark with miniature animals and objects from other Bible scenes. With growing prosperity among the middle class , children had more leisure time on their hands, which led to the application of industrial methods to the manufacture of toys. More complex mechanical and optical -based toys were also invented during the nineteenth century. Carpenter and Westley began to mass-produce

385-553: A series of child labor laws, putting an end to child labor in nations such as the U.S. (1949). This fully entrenched, through law, the Western idea that childhood is a time for leisure , not work—and with leisure time comes more space for consumer goods such as toys. During the Second World War , some new types of toys were created through accidental innovation. After trying to create a replacement for synthetic rubber ,

462-514: A single repository. Rite of passage A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society . In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisation of rite de passage , a French term innovated by the ethnographer Arnold van Gennep in his work Les rites de passage , The Rites of Passage . The term

539-414: A society likewise have magico-religious foundations." Many groups in modern industrial society practice customs that can be traced to an earlier sacred phase. Passage between these groups requires a ceremony , or ritual rite of passage . The rest of Van Gennep's book presents a description of rites of passage and an organization into types, although in the end he despairs of ever capturing them all: "It

616-478: A specific age range can even harm the development of children in that range, such as when for example toys meant for young girls contribute to the ongoing problem of girls' sexualization in Western culture. A study suggested that supplying fewer toys in the environment allows toddlers to better focus to explore and play more creatively. The provision of four rather than sixteen toys is thus suggested to promote children's development and healthy play. Age compression

693-427: A study found that parents who demonstrated some androgynous behavior have higher scores in support, warmth, and self-worth in regards to the treatment of their children. Even as this debate is evolving and children are becoming more inclined to cross barriers in terms of gender with their toys, girls are typically more encouraged to do so than boys because of the societal value of masculinity. With toys comprising such

770-518: A toy bow and arrow from their father while young girls receive a toy basket from their mother. In North African and Saharan cultural communities, gender plays a role in the creation of self-made dolls. While female dolls are used to represent brides, mothers, and wives, male dolls are used to represent horsemen and warriors. This contrast stems from the various roles of men and women within the Saharan and North African communities. There are differences in

847-763: A wide range of other skills. One example of the dramatic ways that toys can influence child development involves clay sculpting toys such as Play-Doh and Silly Putty and their home-made counterparts. Mary Ucci, Educational Director of the Child Study Center of Wellesley College , has demonstrated how such toys positively impact the physical development , cognitive development , emotional development , and social development of children. Toys for infants often make use of distinctive sounds, bright colors, and unique textures . Through repetition of play with toys, infants begin to recognize shapes and colors. Play-Doh , Silly Putty and other hands-on materials allow

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924-767: Is prehistoric ; dolls representing infants, animals, and soldiers, as well as representations of tools used by adults, are readily found at archaeological sites. The origin of the word "toy" is unknown, but it is believed that it was first used in the 14th century. Toys are mainly made for children. The oldest known doll toy is thought to be 4,000 years old. Playing with toys is an important part of aging. Younger children use toys to discover their identity, help with cognition , learn cause and effect, explore relationships, become stronger physically, and practice skills needed in adulthood. Adults on occasion use toys to form and strengthen social bonds, teach, help in therapy, and to remember and reinforce lessons from their youth. A toymaker

1001-503: Is but a rough sketch of an immense picture ...." He is able to find some universals, mainly two: "the sexual separation between men and women, and the magico-religious separation between the profane and the sacred." (Earlier the translators used secular for profane.) He refuses credit for being the first to recognize type of rites. In the work he concentrates on groups and rites individuals might normally encounter progressively: pregnancy, childbirth, initiation, betrothal, marriage, funerals and

1078-484: Is celebrated by the Umhlanga . Rites of passage are diverse, and are found throughout many cultures around the world. Many western societal rituals may look like rites of passage but miss some of the important structural and functional components. However, in many Native and African-American communities, traditional rites of passage programs are conducted by community-based organizations such as Man Up Global . Typically

1155-413: Is facilitated by children through the use of toys to enact scenes recognizable in their community such as hunting and herding. The value is placed in a realistic version of development in preparing a child for the future they are likely to grow up into. This allows the child to imagine and create a personal interpretation of how they view the adult world. However, in other cultures, toys are used to expand

1232-490: Is generally not as looked down upon for girls to play with toys designed "for boys", an activity which has also become more common in recent years. Fathers are also more likely to reinforce typical play and discourage atypical play than mothers are. A study done by researcher Susan Witt suggests that stereotypes are oftentimes only strengthened by the environment, which perpetuates them to linger in older life. This stereotypical attribution of sex-typical toys for girls and boys

1309-408: Is gradually changing, with toys companies creating more gender neutral toys, as the benefits associated with allowing children to play with toys that appeal to them far outweighs controlling their individual preferences. For example, many stores are beginning to change their gender labels on children's play items. Target removed all identification related to gender from their toy aisles and Disney did

1386-518: Is isolated and independent of the social constraints placed on society leaving the children free to delve into the imaginary and idealized version of what their development in life could be. In addition, children from differing communities may treat their toys in different ways based on their cultural practices. Children in more affluent communities may tend to be possessive of their toys, while children from poorer communities may be more willing to share and interact more with other children. The importance

1463-428: Is key in the toy industry and to succeed one must create a 'wow' moment for kids by designing toys that have fun, innovative features and include new technologies and engaging content." In an effort to reduce costs, many mass-producers of toys locate their factories in areas where wages are lower. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world's toys and is home to more than 8,000 toy firms, most of which are located in

1540-403: Is no gender neutral section on their website. Those which are generally deemed for both genders more closely resemble what many would label "boy toys," as they relate closer to the stereotype of masculinity within play. Traditions within various cultures promote the passing down of certain toys to their children based on the child's gender. In Indigenous South American communities, boys receive

1617-439: Is now fully adopted into anthropology as well as into the literature and popular cultures of many modern languages. In English, Van Gennep's first sentence of his first chapter begins: "Each larger society contains within it several distinctly separate groupings. ... In addition, all these groups break down into still smaller societies in subgroups." The population of a society belongs to multiple groups, some more important to

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1694-424: Is the modern trend of children moving through play stages faster than was the case in the past. Children have a desire to progress to more complex toys at a faster pace, girls in particular. Barbie dolls, for example, were once marketed to girls around 8 years old but have been found to be more popular in recent years with girls around 3 years old, with most girls outgrowing the brand by about age 7. The packaging for

1771-470: Is the name of someone who makes toys. Toys and games have been retrieved from the sites of ancient civilizations, and have been mentioned in ancient literature. Toys excavated from the Indus valley civilization (3010–1500 BCE) include small carts, whistles shaped like birds, and toy monkeys that could slide down a string. One of the earliest examples of children's toys is a set of three stone balls found in

1848-399: Is the use of meta-analysis , which provides a way to assess patterns in a systematic way, especially relevant for a topic such as gender, which can be difficult to quantify. Nature and nurture have historically been analyzed when looking at gender in play, as well as reinforcement by peers and parents of typical gender roles and consequently, gender play. Toy companies have often promoted

1925-429: Is tracked in young infants, infant girls show a visual preference for a doll over a toy truck (d > 1.0). Boys showed no preference for the truck over the doll. However, they did fixate on the truck more than the girls (d = .78). This small study suggests that even before any self-awareness of gender identity has emerged, children already prefer sex-typical toys. These differences in toy choice are well established within

2002-491: Is used primarily to provide entertainment . Simple examples include toy blocks , board games , and dolls . Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pets. Toys can provide utilitarian benefits, including physical exercise, cultural awareness, or academic education. Additionally, utilitarian objects, especially those which are no longer needed for their original purpose, can be used as toys. Examples include children building

2079-577: The Hello Kitty brand and the Disney Princess franchise. Boys have shown an interest in computer games at an ever-younger age in recent years. Certain toys, such as Barbie dolls and toy soldiers, are often perceived as being more acceptable for one gender than the other. The turning point for the addition of gender to toys came about in the 1960s and 1970s. Before 1975, only about two percent of toys were labeled by gender, whereas today on

2156-611: The Pearl River Delta of Guangdong Province . 75% of all toys sold in the U.S., for example, are manufactured in China. Issues and events such as power outages, supply of raw materials, supply of labor, and raising wages that impact areas where factories are located often have an enormous impact on the toy industry in importing countries. Many traditional toy makers have been losing sales to video game makers for years. Because of this, some traditional toy makers have entered

2233-498: The kaleidoscope , invented by Sir David Brewster in 1817, and had sold over 200,000 items within three months in London and Paris. The company was also able to mass-produce magic lanterns for use in phantasmagoria and galanty shows, by developing a method of mass production using a copper plate printing process. Popular imagery on the lanterns included royalty , flora and fauna , and geographical/man-made structures from around

2310-536: The "Contemporary Adventure Model of a Rites of Passage" as a modern and weaker version of the rites of passage typically used by outdoor adventure programs. In various tribal and developed societies, entry into an age grade —generally gender-separated—(unlike an age set ) is marked by an initiation rite , which may be the crowning of a long and complex preparation, sometimes in retreat. Some academic circles such as dorms, fraternities, teams and other clubs practice hazing , ragging and fagging . Szecskáztatás ,

2387-548: The "must-have toys" of the 1940s ), Mr. Potato Head , the Barbie doll (inspired by the Bild Lilli doll from Germany), and Action Man . The Rubik's Cube became an enormous seller in the 1980s. In modern times, there are computerized dolls that can recognize and identify objects, the voice of their owner, and choose among hundreds of pre-programmed phrases with which to respond. The act of children's play with toys embodies

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2464-725: The 'sacred bond', the 'sacred cord', the knot, and of analogous forms such as the belt, the ring, the bracelet and the crown." Laboratory experiments have shown that severe initiations produce cognitive dissonance . It is theorized that such dissonance heightens group attraction among initiates after the experience, arising from internal justification of the effort used. Rewards during initiations have important consequences in that initiates who feel more rewarded express stronger group identity. As well as group attraction, initiations can also produce conformity among new members. Psychology experiments have also shown that initiations increase feelings of affiliation . Aronson and Mills tested

2541-445: The 1750s, including A Journey Through Europe . The game was very similar to modern board games; players moved along a track with the throw of a die (a teetotum was actually used) and landing on different spaces would either help or hinder the player. In the nineteenth century, Western values prioritized toys with an educational purpose, such as puzzles, books, cards and board games. Religion-themed toys were also popular, including

2618-471: The 19th century. In 1903, a year after publishing The Tale of Peter Rabbit , English author Beatrix Potter created the first Peter Rabbit soft toy and registered him at the Patent Office in London, making Peter the oldest licensed character. It was followed by other "spin-off" merchandise over the years, including painting books and board games. The Smithsonian magazine stated, "Potter

2695-469: The American Earl L. Warrick inadvertently invented "nutty putty" during World War II . Later, Peter Hodgson recognized the potential as a childhood plaything and packaged it as Silly Putty . Similarly, Play-Doh was originally created as a wallpaper cleaner. In 1943 Richard James was experimenting with springs as part of his military research when he saw one come loose and fall to the floor. He

2772-624: The Disney store's website, considered a dominating global force for toys by researcher Claire Miller, all toys are labeled by gender. The journal Sex Roles began publishing research on this topic in 1975, focusing on the effects of gender in youth. Too, many psychological textbooks began to address this new issue. Along with these publications, researchers also started to challenge the ideas of male and female as being opposites, even going as far as to claim toys which have characteristics of both genders are preferable. A milestone for research on gender

2849-456: The English lawyer Angelo John Lewis , writing under the pseudonym of Professor Hoffman, wrote a book called Puzzles Old and New . It contained, among other things, more than 40 descriptions of puzzles with secret opening mechanisms. This book grew into a reference work for puzzle games and was very popular at the time. The Tangram puzzle, originally from China, spread to Europe and America in

2926-480: The Festinger's (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance by having three groups read either embarrassing material, not very embarrassing material, or nothing at all to a group. Aronson and Mills summarized Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance as such when discussing the rationale for their study: "No matter how attractive a group is to a person it is rarely completely positive, i.e., usually there are some aspects of

3003-461: The U.S. It was estimated that in 2011, 88% of toy sales was in the age group 0–11 years. Toy companies change and adapt their toys to meet the changing demands of children thereby gaining a larger share of the substantial market. In recent years many toys have become more complicated with flashing lights and sounds in an effort to appeal to children raised around television and the internet. According to Mattel 's president, Neil Friedman, "Innovation

3080-628: The Western World. At this point, name-brand toys became widespread in the U.S.–a new phenomenon that helped market mass-produce toys to audiences of children growing up with ample leisure time and during a period of relative prosperity. Among the more well-known products of the 1950s there was the Danish company Lego 's line of colourful interlocking plastic brick construction sets (based on Hilary Page 's Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, described by London's V&A Museum of Childhood as among

3157-465: The archaeological record. Small figurines and models found in tombs are usually interpreted as ritual objects; those from settlement sites are more easily labelled as toys. These include spinning tops, balls of spring, and wooden models of animals with movable parts. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome , children played with dolls made of wax or terracotta : sticks, bows and arrows , and yo-yos . When Greek children, especially girls, came of age, it

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3234-469: The building of working models and mechanical devices. Dinky Toys pioneered the manufacture of die-cast toys with the production of toy cars, trains and ships and model train sets became popular in the 1920s. The Britains company revolutionized the production of toy soldiers with the invention of the process of hollow casting in lead in 1893 – the company's products remained the industry standard for many years. Puzzles became popular as well. In 1893,

3311-418: The ceremonies of incorporation into the new world postliminal rites ." In the first phase, people withdraw from their current status and prepare to move from one place or status to another. "The first phase (of separation) comprises symbolic behavior signifying the detachment of the individual or group ... from an earlier fixed point in the social structure." There is often a detachment or "cutting away" from

3388-427: The child by the age of three. Another study done by Jeffrey Trawick-Smith took 60 different children ages three to four and observed them playing with nine different toys deemed best for development. They were allowed to play with the toys in a typical environment, a preschool classroom, which allowed for the results to be more authentic compared to research done in a lab. The researchers then quantified play quality of

3465-595: The child places on possession is dictated by the values in place within the community that the children observe on a daily basis. Toys, like play itself, serve multiple purposes in both humans and animals. They provide entertainment while fulfilling an educational role. Toys enhance cognitive behavior and stimulate creativity. They aid in the development of physical and mental skills which are necessary in later life. Wooden blocks , though simple, are regarded by early childhood education experts such as Sally Cartwright (1974) as an excellent toy for young children; she praised

3542-478: The child to make toys of their own. Educational toys for school age children of often contain a puzzle , problem-solving technique, or mathematical proposition. Often toys designed for older audiences, such as teenagers or adults, demonstrate advanced concepts. Newton's cradle , a desk toy designed by Simon Prebble , demonstrates the conservation of momentum and energy . Not all toys are appropriate for all ages of children. Even some toys which are marketed for

3619-431: The children with each toy based on factors such as learning, problem solving, curiosity, creativity, imagination, and peer interaction. The results revealed that boys generally received higher scores for overall play quality than girls, and the toys with the best play quality were those identified as the most gender neutral, such as building blocks and bricks along with pieces modeling people. Trawick-Smith then concluded that

3696-627: The daily flux of making and consuming, of getting along. They had no autonomy, separate statuses, privileges, special rights or forms of social comportment that were entirely their own." As these ideas began changing during the Enlightenment Era, blowing bubbles from leftover washing up soap became a popular pastime, as shown in the painting The Soap Bubble (1739) by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin , and other popular toys included hoops , toy wagons , kites , spinning wheels and puppets . Many board games were produced by John Jefferys in

3773-465: The development of a child's cognition in an idealistic fashion. In these communities, adults place the value of play with toys to be on the aspirations they set forth for their child. In the Western culture, the Barbie and Action-Man represent lifelike figures but in an imaginative state out of reach from the society of these children and adults. These toys give way to a unique world in which children's play

3850-520: The dolls labels them appropriate for ages 3 and up. Boys, in contrast, apparently enjoy toys and games over a longer timespan, gravitating towards toys that meet their interest in assembling and disassembling mechanical toys, and toys that "move fast and things that fight". An industry executive points out that girls have entered the " tween " phase by the time they are 8 years old and want non-traditional toys, whereas boys have been maintaining an interest in traditional toys until they are 12 years old, meaning

3927-608: The fact that they are relatively easy to engage with, can be used in repeatable and predictable ways, and are versatile and open-ended, allowing for a wide variety of developmentally appropriate play. Andrew Witkin, director of marketing for Mega Brands , told Investor's Business Daily that "They help develop hand-eye coordination, math and science skills and also let kids be creative." Other toys like marbles , jackstones , and balls serve similar functions in child development, allowing children to use their minds and bodies to learn about spatial relationships , cause and effect , and

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4004-488: The field of electronic games and have even been turning audio games into toys, and are enhancing the brands that they have by introducing interactive extensions or internet connectivity to their current toys. In addition, the rise of distributed manufacturing enables consumers to make their own toys from open source designs with a 3-D printer . As of 2017 consumers were already offsetting millions of dollars per year by 3D printing their own toys from MyMiniFactory ,

4081-485: The former self in this phase, which is signified in symbolic actions and rituals. For example, the cutting of the hair for a person who has just joined the army. He or she is "cutting away" the former self: the civilian. The transition (liminal) phase is the period between stages, during which one has left one place or state but has not yet entered or joined the next. "The attributes of liminality or of liminal personae ("threshold people") are necessarily ambiguous." In

4158-490: The group as more attractive than those who read the mildly embarrassing material or nothing at all. Another study using mathematical subtraction tasks reached the opposite conclusion but research using electrical shocks supported the concept that suffering increased the degree to which participants liked the group. Initiation rites are seen as fundamental to human growth and development as well as socialization in many African communities. These rites function by ritually marking

4235-439: The group that the individual does not like. If he has undergone an unpleasant initiation to gain admission to the group, his cognition that he has gone through an unpleasant experience for the sake of membership is dissonant with his cognition that there are things about the group that he does not like. He can reduce this dissonance in two ways. He can convince himself that the initiation was not very unpleasant, or he can exaggerate

4312-480: The individual than others. Van Gennep uses the metaphor, "as a kind of house divided into rooms and corridors." A passage occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another; in the metaphor, he changes rooms. Van Gennep further distinguishes between "the secular" and "the sacred sphere." Theorizing that civilizations are arranged on a scale, implying that the lower levels represent "the simplest level of development," he hypothesizes that " social groups in such

4389-535: The late 18th and early 19th century, many families needed to send their children to work in factories and other sites to make ends meet—just as their predecessors had required their labor producing household goods in the medieval era. Business owners' exploitation and abuse of child laborers during this period differed from how children had been treated as workers within a family unit, though. Thanks to advocacy including photographic documentation of children's exploitation and abuse by business owners, Western nations enacted

4466-447: The like. He mentions some others, such as the territorial passage, a crossing of borders into a culturally different region, such as one where a different religion prevails. Rites of passage have three phases: separation, liminality, and incorporation, as van Gennep described. "I propose to call the rites of separation from a previous world, preliminal rites , those executed during the transitional stage liminal (or threshold) rites , and

4543-550: The missing piece is the societal recognition and reincorporation phase. Adventure education programs, such as Outward Bound , have often been described as potential rites of passage. Pamela Cushing researched the rites of passage impact upon adolescent youth at the Canadian Outward Bound School and found the rite of passage impact was lessened by the missing reincorporation phase. Bell (2003) presented more evidence of this lacking third stage and described

4620-540: The pieces. In Iran , "puzzle-locks" were made as early as the 17th century (CE). Toys became more widespread with changing Western attitudes towards children and childhood brought about by the Enlightenment . Previously, children had often been thought of as small adults, who were expected to work in order to produce the goods that the family needed to survive. As children's culture scholar Stephen Kline has argued, Medieval children were "more fully integrated into

4697-436: The positive characteristics of the group and minimize its negative aspects. With increasing severity of initiation it becomes more and more difficult to believe that the initiation was not very bad. Thus, a person who has gone through a painful initiation to become a member of a group should tend to reduce his dissonance by over estimating the attractiveness of the group." Those who read the severely embarrassing material perceived

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4774-450: The primary influencer on the gender roles of their children. Parents, siblings, peers, and even teachers have been shown to react more positively to children engaging in sex-typical behavior and playing with sex-typical toys. This is often done through encouragement or discouragement, as well as suggestions and imitation. Additionally, sons are more likely to be reinforced for sex-typical play and discouraged from atypical play. However, it

4851-519: The same for their costumes. The Disney store is an especially prevalent example of gender in play because they are a global identity in the toy world. A study done regarding their website found that though they have removed gender labels from their costumes, the toys online reflect more stereotypical gender identities. For example, toys depicting males were associated with physicality and females were associated with beauty, housing, and caring. Though Disney promotes their toys as being for both genders, there

4928-410: The segregation by gender in toys because it enables them to customize the same toy for each gender, which ultimately doubles their revenue. For example, Legos added more colors to certain sets of toys in the 1990s, including colors commonly attributed to girls such as lavender. It has been noted by researchers that, "Children as young as 18 months display sex-stereotyped toy choices". When eye movement

5005-425: The study encourages a focus on toys which are beneficial to both genders in order to create a better balance. While some parents promote gender neutral play, many parents encourage their children to participate in sex-typed activities, including doll-playing and engaging in housekeeping activities for girls and playing with trucks and engaging in sports activities for boys. Researcher Susan Witt said that parents are

5082-401: The supply to meet this rising demand. Intellectual emphasis was also increasingly being placed on the importance of a wholesome and happy childhood for the future development of children. Franz Kolb , a German pharmacist, invented plasticine in 1880, and in 1900 commercial production of the material as a children's toy began. Frank Hornby was a visionary in toy development and manufacture and

5159-417: The third phase (reaggregation or incorporation) the passage is consummated [by] the ritual subject." Having completed the rite and assumed their "new" identity, one re-enters society with one's new status. Re-incorporation is characterized by elaborate rituals and ceremonies, like debutant balls and college graduation, and by outward symbols of new ties: thus "in rites of incorporation there is widespread use of

5236-400: The tomb of a four-year-old girl at Xi'an Banpo Neolithic site. The earliest toys were made from natural materials, such as rocks, sticks, and clay . Thousands of years ago, Egyptian children played with dolls that had wigs and movable limbs, which were made from stone, pottery, and wood. However, evidence of toys in ancient Egypt is exceptionally difficult to identify with certainty in

5313-536: The toys that are intended for girls and boys within various cultures, which is reflective of the differing roles of men and women within a specific cultural community. Research on the repercussions of gender in toys suggests that desegregation of the genders can be achieved by encouraging more gender-neutral play. Researchers Carol Auster and Claire Mansbach have argued that allowing children to play with toys which more closely fit their talents would help them to better develop their skills. In terms of parental influence,

5390-575: The traditional toy industry holds onto their boy customers for 50% longer than their girl customers. Girls gravitate towards "music, clothes, make-up, television talent shows and celebrities". As young children are more exposed to and drawn to music intended for older children and teens, companies are having to rethink how they develop and market their products. Girls also demonstrate a longer loyalty to characters in toys and games marketed towards them. A variety of global toy companies have marketed themselves to this aspect of girls' development, for example,

5467-544: The transition of someone to full group membership. It also links individuals to the community and the community to the broader and more potent spiritual world. Initiation rites are "a natural and necessary part of a community, just as arms and legs are natural and necessary extension of the human body". These rites are linked to individual and community development. Dr. Manu Ampim identifies five stages; rite to birth, rite to adulthood, rite to marriage, rite to eldership and rite to ancestorship. In Zulu culture, entering womanhood

5544-418: The values set forth by the adults of their specific community, but through the lens of the child's perspective. Within cultural societies, toys are a medium to enhance a child's cognitive, social, and linguistic learning. In some cultures, toys are used as a way to enhance a child's skillset within the traditional boundaries of their future roles in the community. In Saharan and North African cultures, play

5621-637: The world. The modern zoetrope was invented in 1833 by British mathematician William George Horner and was popularized in the 1860s. Wood and porcelain dolls in miniature doll houses were popular with middle-class girls, while boys played with marbles and toy trains. The golden age of toy development occurred during the Industrial Era . Real wages were rising steadily in the Western world, allowing even working-class families to afford toys for their children, and industrial techniques of precision engineering and mass production were able to provide

5698-462: Was also an entrepreneur and a pioneer in licensing and merchandising literary characters. Potter built a retail empire out of her "bunny book" that is worth $ 500 million today. In the process, she created a system that continues to benefit all licensed characters, from Mickey Mouse to Harry Potter ." In tandem with the development of mass-produced toys, Enlightenment ideals about children's rights to education and leisure time came to fruition. During

5775-421: Was customary for them to sacrifice the toys of their childhood to the gods . On the eve of their wedding, young girls around fourteen would offer their dolls in a temple as a rite of passage into adulthood. The oldest known mechanical puzzle also comes from ancient Greece and appeared in the 3rd century BCE. The game consisted of a square divided into 14 parts, and the aim was to create different shapes from

5852-489: Was intrigued by the way it flopped around on the floor. He spent two years fine-tuning the design to find the best gauge of steel and coil; the result was the Slinky , which went on to sell in stores throughout the United States. After the Second World War , as society became ever more affluent and new technology and materials (plastics) for toy manufacture became available, toys became cheap and ubiquitous in households across

5929-402: Was responsible for the invention and production of three of the most popular lines of toys based on engineering principles in the twentieth century: Meccano , Hornby Model Railways and Dinky Toys . Meccano was a model construction system that consisted of re-usable metal strips, plates, angle girders , wheels, axles and gears , with nuts and bolts to connect the pieces and enabled

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