A Cultural History of Traditional Board Games

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A Cultural History of Traditional Board Games
Celia Pearce LCC 4725-8823 Game Design as
Cultural Practice Fall 2009
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What is a game?
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What is the relationship between games and
culture?
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Are games the first communication medium?
Peek-a-boo by Eric Joseph Cotter
Some scholars believe that games predate
language. Human babies learn to play games before
they learn to talk.
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Photo National Geographic

• Animals play games Anthropologist Gregory
  Bateson famously asked How do animals know when
  they are play fighting?

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Jane Goodall aped by a chimp.
Mirror neurons enable humans and animals to
empathize imitate.

• Recent research has found that mirror neurons are
  key to language play in both human and animals.

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Zanzi the ape learning language skills.
Orangutan playing a video game at Zoo Atlanta.

• Games are the primary method used to study the
  intelligence of Primates.

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• Kids can make a game or toy out of anything.

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• Play is universal to all cultures...

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• and eras.

and eras.
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Craftsmanship
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A Cultural History of Games
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King Tut was a gamer
Senet board found in the tomb of Tutankhamen, who
was an avid player, and may have also believed he
could use it to win battles in the afterlife.

• Senet is the the oldest known board game
• Oldest archaeological evidence dates from 3500
  BCE

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Senet
Queen Nefertari playing Senet

• Appears to have been played primarily by royalty
  of both sexes

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Royal Game of Ur

• Oldest evidence dates back to 2600BCE
• Believed to be the predecessor to Backgammon

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Backgammon

• In the 11th century Shahnameh, the Persian poet
  Ferdowsi credits Burzoe with the invention of the
  game nard in the 6th century. He describes an
  encounter between Burzoe and a Raja visiting from
  India. The Raja introduces the game of chess, and
  Burzoe demonstrates nard, played with dice made
  from ivory and teak

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Backgammon
Backgammon players, from Alfonso X Libro de los
Juegos
Herr Goeli, from the 14th century Codex Manesse

• Herr Goeli, from the 14th century Codex Manesse

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Backgammon

• Backgammon board manufacture (c.1280)
• From Alfonso X Libro de los Juegos

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Backgammon

• Brädspel ("board game") set recovered from the
  warship Vasa, which sank in 1628.

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Backgammon

• Lebanese backgammon board carved from wood.

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Mancala aka Gebeta

• Ancient Gebeta (Mancala) holes from in Aksum (or
  Axum), Ethiopia.

Mancalas age is debated, but Murray, a noted
archaeologist, traced its origins as far back as
15th to 11th centuries BCE.
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Mancala aka Gebeta
Seega
Gebeta aka Mancala

• Many examples of mancala-style board games have
  been found carved into stone in Petra, the
  capital of ancient Nabataea, Ethiopia, hence
  earning its moniker the City of Games.

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Mancala aka Gebeta

• Mancala is still played in many variants in
  Africa and throughout the world. African boards
  carved from wood are often sculptural works of
  art.

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Sri Lankan variant Olinda Kaliya

• Olinda Kaliya table, a Mancala variant in the
  lobby of the Kandalama Hotel, Sri Lanka (left).

Mancala derivatives are usually called seed or
counting games and involve sowing stones or
seeds from pits into your kalaha pit.
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The Alquerque Family (Quirkat or al-Quirkat)
Spanish men en playing Alquerque, pictured in
''Libro de los juegos (c.1283)

• Quirkat, is a checkers-like game, probably of
  Egyptian origin, believed to have crossed the
  straits with Tariq's conquering Arab and Berber
  army in 711 A.D., then spread from Moorish Spain
  (al-Andalus) to the rest of Europe.

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The Alquerque Family (Quirkat or al-Quirkat)

• Before starting, each player places their twelve
  pieces in the two rows closest to them and in the
  two rightmost spaces in the center row.
• A piece can move from its point to any adjacent
  empty point
• A piece can jump over an opposing piece and
  remove it from the game, if that opposing piece
  is adjacent and the point beyond it is empty
• Multiple capturing jumps are permitted, and
  compulsory if possible
• If a capture is possible it must be made, or else
  the piece is removed (or huffed)
• The goal of the game is to eliminate the
  opponent's pieces.

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The Alquerque Family (Checkers/Draughts)

• The Madagascan game of Fanorona (c. 1680 AD)
• is a descendant of Alquerque and is still played
  today.

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The Alquerque Family (Checkers/Draughts)

• Draughts players in medieval England

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The Alquerque Family

• Children playing giant Draughts, June 7, 1934
• (Photo by Fred Morley, Getty Images)

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The Alquerque Family (Checkers/Draughts)

• Sri Lankans playing a variant of draughts.

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Go
Go, also named WeiChi or WeiQi in China and Baduk
in Korea, is a traditional game for control of
territory. It may date back as far as 23372258
BC, but the earliest reference dates to the 4th
Century BCE.
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Go
In many East Asian cultures, Go was considered
one of the most important skills a civilized
person could learn. This screen showing Chinese
Go players in the Ming Dynasty was made by Kano
Eitoku (????) in the 16th century.
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Go
All things of this world I can generally
understand, only I cannot bear myself to be
defiled by playing go. Lun Pu (967-1028)
In China, Go was considered one of the Four
Accomplishments of the civilized person, which
also included lute, calligraphy and painting.
Here, the poet Lun Pu laments his poor skill at
the game.
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Go
Confucius and Lao-tze Playing Go, Diptych by
Suzuki Rinsho, Kubo Shunman, and Tsutsumi Tomei
c.1800.
Many traditional images from China and Japan
depict the immortals and other key figures
playing Go.
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Go
Titled The Pleasure Quarters in Full Splendor,
this print by Chikashige depicts the courtesans
of an upper-class establishment showing off their
skills at music, poetry, go, and painting.
In Japan, Geisha and courtesans were expected to
learn Go as part of their repertoire of
entertainment.
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Go
In China, Go was considered the game of the
aristocracy while Chess was considered the game
of the masses.
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Go
These are among a number of Japanese prints using
Go as an allegory for warrior supremacy.
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Dice and Dominoes

• Dice were originally made of knucklebones of
  hooved animals such as oxen, and often used for
  fortune-telling. As a result early dice tended to
  be tetrahedral in shape.

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Dice and Dominoes
Norse rune stones.
Assorted dice from different cultures.
iChing coins and hexagram

• Dice games of some kind have existed in nearly
  every culture. Games of chance have ranged from
  being viewed as sacred to sinful, depending on
  the culture. Chance also plays a major role in
  some fortune-telling systems, such as Chinese
  I-Ching and Nordic Runes.

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Dice and Dominoes
Indian stick dice.
Walnut-shell dice used for gambling by the Native
American Yokuts

• Dice variants appear in sites diverse as ancient
  Egypt and India to the pre-Columbian Americas.

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Dice and Dominoes

• The ancient Romans enjoyed dice, although the
  game was forbidden except during certain
  festivals. Philosophers of the Roman era thought
  that dice playing was a waste of time, and even
  dangerous.

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Dice and Dominoes
Egyptian dice
Assorted Asian dice.

• Like many games, dice are thought to have
  returned to Europe from China via the Middle-East.

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Dice and Dominoes

• Dice-making (c.1280) from Alfonso X, Libro de
  los Juegos

Dice were very popular in Medieval Europe,
although they were, like all gambling and games
(especially games of chance), considered sinful.
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Dice and Dominoes

• Dice-makers, 16th Century

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Dice and Dominoes
Chinese domino cards from the 19th Century.
Chinese dominoes. (University of Waterloo Games
Museum)

• The patterns on dominoes, which also originated
  in China, are based on the number rolls of
  six-sided dice. Both are essentially systems with
  which many games can be played. There are also
  domino card systems in China.

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Dominoes
Cuba (Photo by Roy Llera)
Dominican Republic

• Dominoes are extremely popular in the Caribbean,
  played almost exclusively by men.

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Dominoes variants - Mah Jongg

• Legend has it that Mah Jongg was invented by
  Confucius around 500 CE. Another says the game
  was invented by a Princess in the Court of the
  Emperor Wu. Most historians believe it originated
  in the 1800s and was derived from the card game
  Mah-Tiao, a game played during the Ming Dynasty
  (1368-1644), in the 1800s. Mah Jongg appears to
  be a hybrid between cards and dominoes.

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Mah Jongg
Mrs. J.P. Babcock Miriam Cordell, star of
"Rain," playing Mah Jongg. Babcock and her
husband brought the game to the U.S. from China.

• Mah Jongg became very popular in the US in the
  1920s and 1930s, and was a particular favorite
  among Jewish women. The game remains popular
  today among this demographic. The popularity of
  the game coincided with the rise of orientalism
  in the US.

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Card Games A Migratory Tale

• Playing cards originated China sometime between
  600 and 1000CE. The cards were more strip-shaped
  than modern cards and contained images having to
  do with wealth and money. Paper and printing were
  enabling technologies that made this possible.

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Card Games A Migratory Tale

• From China playing cards spread to the Islamic
  cultures, where cups and swords were added to
  represent various "suits" and "court" cards.
  These Mamlûk cards date from the 1100s and
  1200s and resemble Italian Tarot cards. Note the
  longer shape similar to Chinese cards.

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Card Games A Migratory Tale

• From Andy Polletts History of Playing Cards web
  site

Map showing migration of various card game genres
throughout Europe from the Middle East.
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Card Games A Migratory Tale

• By 1377 cards had arrived in Europe, and the
  court cards began showing kings, knights, and
  other royalty to represent higher values. In
  Germany and Switzerland, the two lower court
  cards are both on foot, representing an 'upper'
  and a 'lower' rank-as stated in the 1377
  description of playing-cards.

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Card Games A Migratory Tale
From Denis Diderot's Encyclopedia of Trades and
Industry (18th Century)

• Fueled by the rise of the printing press, in
  addition to printing biblical texts, printing
  could also be enjoyed by sinners in the form of
  playing cards.

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Card Games
Original Arabic Suits
Contemporary Western Suits

• As playing cards spread throughout Europe, the
  suit symbols developed were adapted from the
  Arabic suits based on regional cultures, until
  they arrived at the abstract symbols we recognize
  today as playing card suits.

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Card Games
Coin
Cup/ Chalice
Sword
Club
Spanish playing cards by Fournier in the
Castilian style.
Spanish card suits Castilian, Catalan and Cadíz

• Early design the Spanish cards borrowed from the
  four Arabic suits, slightly changing the signs of
  the two long suits (originally featuring
  scimitars and polo sticks) into something more
  identifiable by the local folk.

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Card Games
Moroccan Cadíz pattern

• As cards migrated from Arabic to European
  countries, their designs and representations
  evolved to reflect the culture.

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Card Games
IX of France (marshal)
Queen of Bohemia
VII of Hungary (chief cook)
III of France (tailor)

• The German Hofämterspiel (or householders
  deck) depicts many different members of a
  typical medieval court household. (c.1460)

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Card Games
Pack of Fifty-two Playing Cards from Southern
Lowlands (Burgundian territories), ca.
147080 (Metropolitan Museum, Cloisters)
Queen of Bohemia
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Card Games
Hand-painted Stuttgart Cards (Stuttgarter
Kartenspiel) (c.1430)
Hunting Cards
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Card Games
Renaissance Lords and Ladies enjoying a game of
cards (with gambling)!
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Card Games
Native American playing cards hand-painted on
leather.
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Earliest known chess pieces (chatrang), found at
Afrasaib, near Samarkand in Uzbekistan, dated 760
AD.
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Persia, 1100 AD
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Ancient European queen, 12th century, Spain
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Scandinavian style chessmen, 12th century,
Scotland
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Giant Chess Set, Dimapur, Nagaland, India,
associated with Mahabharata hero Bhima's wife
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• Chess-making from Alphonse X Book of Games
  (c.1280)

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• The Chess Match, by Lucas van Leyden (1508),
  captures a variant, Courier Chess, played in
  Central Europe for over six centuries.

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Ben Franklin and Lady Howe play chess in 1774
while discussing British-Colony relations.
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• References
• Ancient Board Games of the Nabataeans.
  www.nabataeans.net
• Andy Polletts History of Playing Cards
  http//www.geocities.com/a_pollett/
• Bateson, (1972). A Theory of Play and Fantasy. In
  Steps Toward an Ecology of Mind. New York
  Ballantine.
• Concise History of Playing Cards
  http//www.wopc.co.uk/history/
• Creative Pro http//www.creativepro.com
• Crystalpunk http//www.socialfiction.org/
• Ferrari, P.F., Gallese, V., Rizzolatti, G.,
  Fogassi, L. (2003). Mirror Neurons Responding to
  the Observation of Ingestive and Communicative
  Mouth Actions in the Monkey Ventral Premotor
  Cortex. European Journal of Neuroscience, 17,
  1703-1714.
• Grunfeld, Frederic V. (1975). Games of the World.
  New York Holt, Rinehart and Winston. (Medieval
  Alquerque)
• http//www.answers.com/topic/mancala?catentertain
  ment
• International Playing Card Society
  http//i-p-c-s.org/history.html
• Mah Jongg Museum http//www.mahjongmuseum.com/
• Pinkard, William. Japanese prints and the world
  of Go. http//www.kiseido.com/printss/ukiyoedx.htm
  l
• The Online Guide to Traditional Games
  http//www.tradgames.org.uk/index.html
• Univeristy of Waterloo Games Museum, Canada
  http//www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca
• Wikipedia