From labyrinths to Logos. The transformation of play and the “total social fact” of toys

This article explores childhood play as a “total social fact,” where toys, bodies, and symbolic structures converge. Drawing on the legacy of Marcel Mauss, it investigates how the act of playing—often perceived as an isolated and individual act—is in reality the site of a complex interplay of social, psychological, and material forces. Toys are not inert objects but dynamic forms, arising from the tension between collective processes of socialization and the child’s creative agency. Through the con- cepts of floating signifiers and the third place of play, this article analyzes the trans- formation of play environments, from traditional games to plastic commodities and digital interfaces. It argues that the toy becomes a symbolic interface where society inscribes itself onto the child’s body, and where the child, in turn, redefines social meaning. In the age of plastic and overconsumption, play reveals both the resilience and fragility of evolving cultural forms