Consider the following: >> testtext = ['Four', 'lines', 'of', 'text',] >> def myprint(item): ... print item ... >>> result = map(print, testtext) File "<string>", line 1 map(print, testtext) ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax >>> result = map(myprint, testtext) Four lines of text >>> Clearly I can't use "print" the same way I use "myprint". Why?