Huizinga saw the instinct for play as a central element in human culture: ‘In myth and ritual the great instinctive forces of civilized life have their origin: law and order, commerce and profit, craft and art, poetry, wisdom and science. All are rooted in the primeval soil of play.’

In Homo Ludens Huizinga attempts to show the impact of play on almost every aspect of culture, in other words how culture is shaped by play. The importance of this endeavor is that it identifies play as an independent phenomenon. Play for Huizinga has its own organizational forces, its own purposes and its own space and time, all of which affect culture.