This book presents unique new insights into the development of human ritual and society through our heritage of play and performance.

1. Introducing ritual, play and belief: in evolution and early human societies Iain Morley; 2. Introduction: play as the precursor of ritual in early human societies Colin Renfrew; Part I. Play and Ritual: Forms, Foundations and Evolution in Animals and Humans: 3. The origins, evolution, and interconnections of play and ritual: setting the stage Gordon Burghardt; 4. Play and creativity Patrick Bateson; 5. Pretend and sociodramatic play in evolutionary and developmental perspective Peter K. Smith; 6. Pretend play, cognition and life-history in human evolution Iain Morley; 7. From play and ritualisation to ritual and its arts: sources of Upper Pleistocene ritual practices in Lower Middle Pleistocene ritualised and play behaviours in ancestral hominins Ellen Dissanayake; Part II. Playing with Belief and Performance in Ancient Societies: 8. Maya sacred play: the view from El Perú-Waka' David Friedel and Michelle Rich; 9. Communal performance and ritual practice in the Ancestral Puebloan era of the American Southwest Claire Halley; 10. Architecture and imagery in the early Neolithic of Southwest Asia: framing rituals, stabilizing meanings Trevor Watkins; 11. Dancing with masks in the Protohistoric Near East Yosef Garfinkel; 12. Ritual, mimesis and the animal world in early China Roel Sterckx; 13. Manipulating the bones: Eating and augury in the Maltese temples Caroline Malone; Part III. The Ritual in the Game, The Game in the Ritual: 14. Play, ritual and transformation: Sports, animals and manhood in Egyptian and Aegean art Lyvia Morgan; 15. Bull games in Minoan Crete: social and symbolic dimensions Nanno Marinatos; 16. Epic Games Nigel Spivey; 17. The ball game, boxing and ritual bloodsport in ancient Mesoamerica Karl Taube; 18. Rituals, games and learning Vanghelis Kyriakidis; Part IV. From Play to Faith? Discussion: 19. Play and ritual: some thoughts from a material-culture perspective Lambros Malafouris; 20. Believing in play and ritual Robin Osborne; 21. The pentagram of performance: ritual, play and social transformation Iain Morley.