Weapons and implements for catching/capturing
The texts are concerned with “real” weapons and implements, as well as copies and fakes.
Texts of play with the toys
- Bow and arrows: Carving wood and making bows and arrows
- Sheath knife: Play out in the den. Carve things out of twigs and branches, play boy scouts, cops and robbersand soldiers
- Fishing rod: go fishing and get to know the different fish
- Home-made weaponsmade of LEGO bricks: the bad guys get shot and lose. We find the treasure and shoot the bad guys dead.
- Home-made traps: The bad guys are meant to fall into them. Some robbers are after me and are caught in the traps. I even have traps which I catch animals in to eat.
- cat which fires arrows: Set things up and try to shoot them down.
- Machine gun: Play war and shoot the bad guys. We take turns at being the bad guys who die.
- Playing hunting: the hunter hunts and the animaltries to get away. So I kill the animal which lies completely still because it knows it’s going to die.
- Shooting: I (Father) take my son and daughter to shooting because that game teaches them to have respect for a dangerous and useful implement or weapon. In addition it is training them in perseverance, endurance, concentration and strengthens their intellect.
Supplementary literary texts:
- Ib’n Khaldunwrites that while God gave the animals their natural limbs for their defence, he gave Man his ability to think. The power of thought made it possible for Man to produce weapons - the lance instead of horns, the sword instead of claws, the shield instead of thick skin - and to establish a society to produce them.
As the individual person was powerless against wild animals, especially predators, Man could only defend himself together with his fellows. During civilisation all-out war broke out using the equipment which was intended to keep the animals away.
Chatwin(1988)