IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v389y1970i1p35-45.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Charismatic and the Playful in Outdoor Recreation

Author

Listed:
  • Rolf Meyersohn

    (Herbert H. Lehman College)

Abstract

Striking parallels exist between the concepts charisma and play. Both refer to a quality or an orientation rather than a behavior or an activity. Both are seen as innate to humans, yet scarce because of lack of opportunity and lack of cultivation, as well as lack of talent or "genius." Charisma as well as play is related to vital processes and is transcendent, featuring the extra-ordinary. Charisma and play are contrasted with the routine and reject it. Separateness and segregation are inherent in charisma and play; yet both become routinized, stylized, institutionalized. The elaborate and complex nature of these concepts is illustrated by exam ining a study of wilderness-camping in which qualities of experience are expressed that can be derived from the ele ments of charisma and play. These qualities are more readily experienced by persons who are trained to experience them; most leisure-activities are not felt to be so moving or touching, and outdoor recreation as well as the rest of the activities which occupy us during our free time are not usually endowed with transcendent qualities.

Suggested Citation

  • Rolf Meyersohn, 1970. "The Charismatic and the Playful in Outdoor Recreation," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 389(1), pages 35-45, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:389:y:1970:i:1:p:35-45
    DOI: 10.1177/000271627038900105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271627038900105
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/000271627038900105?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:389:y:1970:i:1:p:35-45. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.