With the exception of the imitation of weddings, in which the female and male worlds mix, the distinction between female and male activities remains strong in doll play. In the sphere of the female world, doll play mostly refers to playing household, to enacting festivities, especially weddings, and other important reunions, to representing pregnancy, childbirth or a burial. In the sphere of the masculine world, the doll becomes a dromedarist, a horseman, a mule driver, a herdsman, a warrior or a nobleman. Following all the information I have at my disposal, the children enact in their doll play the life of the adults. Moreover, they may sing, dance, tell riddles or stories and engage in linguistic games during their doll play.

In this collective doll play the children use a lot of other toys or objects. Most often this is a doll play for which children of the same family and/or neighborhood come together. Although the bibliographical documents too rarely talk about this, the dolls described in this book have no meaning except within the children's doll play. As more or less all over the world it is the girls who play most with dolls and to a much lesser extent the boys, and then they almost always play with male dolls. So these dolls have, with very few exceptions, been locally made. However it happens that an adult woman of the family, a female or male artisan make them. Most of the time Saharan and North African children make their dolls themselves. The child dolls represent girls or boys of some age. These male dolls and female dolls are adults, often bridegrooms and brides. With the exception of Morocco, I have only noted the existence of male dolls among the children of families living in the Sahara. However, the female dolls are largely predominant. In North Africa and the Sahara one finds male dolls as well as female dolls and child dolls. In appendix 3 the interested reader can find some autobiographical notes. Appendix 2 gives a scheme for a detailed description of play activities and toys.

In appendix 1 a detailed and systematic description, in French, of the Saharan and North African dolls of the collection of the Musée de l'Homme can be consulted. In the chapter Conclusion, a synthesis is proposed, together with a discussion of some environmental, economic and socio-cultural aspects of the dolls and doll play, followed by a final chapter in which I try to offer suggestions for the practical use of this toy and play culture. Each of the three subdivisions starts with a summary putting forward the main characteristics of the group of dolls concerned. To begin with, the male dolls are described, then the female dolls and finally the child dolls. This book presents the reader a detailed analysis of the dolls and the doll play of Saharan and North African children.

I will also propose coalitions of art and visual culture, through which teachers can facilitate inquiries and projects around unintended juxtapositions of play, performance, and art-making. This paper argues that while children's toys (as symbolic bodies) may pose narrowly gendered and heteronormative models of adulthood children may also begin to counter paradigms of gender and sexuality within subversive play at home and school. I will address issues of consumption, while taking into consideration taboos of gender and sexuality within public and private play. As an artist and teacher educator, I will draw upon my teaching experiences and examine artifacts of pedagogy from material and visual culture. How does children's play with dolls and action figures engender exploration of gendered identities: from aesthetics and appearances, to social standards, and various gendered rituals and performances? This paper examines recent research in art education and gender studies concerning dolls and figural toys marketed to girls.

Im a barbie girl