Playing with the umwelten: seeing the world through their eyes

Abstract

This thesis unites two contrasting projects within the framework of one concept: the umwelt – which stresses the need to view the world from the subject’s perspective. The first project is a comparative analysis of the play fighting in several species of Old World monkeys. All species attacked and defended the same body targets and used similar combat tactics. Surprisingly, whereas two species focused more on biting, the other two adopted tactics to enhance the opportunity for competition. The second project involves a story about play written for young children. An analysis of the parents’ impressions of the children’s responses revealed that the sex and interests of the child greatly influenced their attentiveness to the story. Thus, the thesis demonstrates that the umwelt is a powerful conceptual tool for understanding how the subjects perceive and react to the world, whether describing behaviour, or communicating with an audience.