that it is embossed with a signature approach that privileges the spoken
word. It thus endorses a viewpoint that an understanding of collective
make-believe has to be adduced from an examination of the language
behaviour in which it typically inheres. As other researchers have per-
ceptively noted, 'the saying is the playing' ( Garvey and Berndt 1977;
Schwartzman 1978). But there is more common ground between the books
than acceptance of methodological precepts and simply being about 'Hull'
culture and people. Pretence, like 'accident', is surely one of those little
known and researched concepts whose tentacles of implication reach to all
aspects of the anthropological enterprise. In this regard the book encap-
sulates a profound conviction that pretence is set to move from the
periphery to the centre of disciplinary attention.

While working on this manuscript I have variously benefited from
insights and comments on the play transcripts and other data made by my
colleagues Dr Jeffrey Clark, Dr Jim McKay and Dr David Lee. Portions of
the work were also presented at conferences held by the American
Anthropological Association (AAA), the Association for the Study of Play
(TASP), the International Conference on Language and Social Psychology,
and various seminars held at the Australian National University and
University of Queensland. A debt of gratitude is extended to the numerous
participants who volunteered comments at these sessions but who remain
formally unacknowledged. Special mention must be made of the unique
contribution of Dr Michael Emmison, with whom I have co-published a
number of articles on pretence, puppets and parlance, and who brought
the formal rigour of conversation analysis to bear on the speech materials.

While in the field my understanding of Huli play was immeasurably
enhanced by the people of Yaluba, all of the children whose voices appear
in the book, and most particularly my longstanding friend and field
assistant Yorobi Uga. Finally, I would like to record my thanks to Jill Pappos
for her formatting skills on the tables and figures, to Carolyn Magerl once
again for her incomparable illustrations, to Jim Smith of GEOID for his
maps, to Kathryn Earle and the editorial team at Berg Publishers for their
work on the manuscript, and to my parents for their continued support.

-xviii-