ingenious devices hy which human parents hope to 

 safeguard their young, appears vividly too in chil- 

 dren's garments. In a very real sense, here, clothes 

 make the man (or woman), foreshadowing adult roles 

 and responsibilities and expressing the values of the 

 culture. From the Eskimo parka to the brief pubic 

 shield of a Javanese girl, clothing typically moves 

 beyond merely practical considerations to celebrate 

 the child and his hoped-for future. The silk coat of a 

 Chinese infant is richly embroidered with symbols of 

 health, wealth, and power: a cat to protect against 

 evil spirits, butterflies for happiness, and the swastika- 

 shaped wamzi for luck. A woolen jacket for a Guate- 

 malan boy displays the quetzal bird motif, symbolizing 

 greatness. Clothing the world over is in fact a rich 

 language communicating, besides feeling, the wearer's 

 status, the community's resources and, frequently, the 

 pure art impulse of elaboration. One of the exhibit's 

 most enchanting items is an infant hat from Pakistan, 

 a kind of helmet with elongated ear flaps, extrava- 

 gantly decorated with a mix of traditional embroidery 

 and commercial artifacts. The cap is edged with white 

 beading (no surprise), hung with silver coins and 

 small bells (no great surprise) and then improbably 

 finished off with key chains, pearl buttons, and split 

 zippers. 



Role modelling begins in children's garments — 

 often, as the exhibit reveals, miniature versions of 

 adult apparel. The suit for a four-year-old Bagobo boy 

 of the Philippines is a perfect replica of his father's, 

 down to the attached sling bag . A young girl 



Diane Alexander White 



of the Karok — a California Indian tribe — destined to 

 be a healer and dance leader early assumes ceremonial 

 garments. Above all, though, it's in play that role- 

 modelling and Elbow Room, hanging loose, come 

 together. Is the Cameroon child's tiny Land-Rover 

 life-learning, or pure highjinks? In Families at Work — 

 the exhibit and the real-life activity — play emerges as 

 both diversion and serious business. When an adult 

 plays — at golf, dancing, chess — he turns aside from 

 his "real" work to relax; this is recreation. But the 

 child's play is a continuous act of creation. Running 

 or digging, building or pretending, the child creates 

 himself; he discovers who he is, what he can do, how 

 things work, where he fits into the total scheme. The 

 cradle board encourages nurturing, the how competi- 

 tion. A Cheyenne boy's slingshot is not just amuse- 

 ment (though it's surely that); it's practice in develop- 

 ing eye and hand for targeting small game. With his 

 toy rake, the Indonesian child prepares for life in the 

 rice fields, just as the young Malay moves towards his 

 destiny with a miniature cart made of coconut husks. 

 The child-size Japanese sword, the scaled-down Hopi 

 bow and arrow — these toys express the culture's val- 

 ues and standards. Children envy — how can they 

 not? — what seems the absolute freedom and power of 

 adults. And when they rush out to play — with ball, 

 top, wagon, skates — they're impelled not only by a 

 desire for fiin, but by a drive for mastery, over them- 

 selves and the physical world. 



Many young creatures play. Look at the fox cubs 

 in a Families at Work display — pouncing on wind- 

 blown leaves, chasing each other's tails. Just as this 

 kind of play looks ahead to the adult hunt, so chil- 

 dren's games (and the toys parents provide) constitute 

 a special kind of life preparation. Consider the doll. 

 The most minimal one, in this exhibit, made by the 

 Naskapi-Montagnais Indians, is a paper cutout, a 

 crude representation of the human form cut into 

 birchbark. Without features, without sex, this de- 

 humanized figure suggests a culture in which natural 

 and supernatural forces dominate man. The Ndebele 

 bead dolls, and the straw dolls of Ecuador (with bells 

 concealed in bright skirts) express a delicate, decora- 

 tive image of woman, contrasting strongly with a lusty 

 leather doll from southern Africa, her sexual role ac- 

 centuated by breasts, thrust buttocks, and back-borne 

 infant. A Japanese daruma doll, designed to teach forti- 

 tude, armless and legless, is all head; the Cheyenne 

 doll, on the other hand, has a head the size of a bead. 

 Some cultures produce baby dolls; in others, dolls 

 represent adult ideals. And then there is Barbie, the 



