Details

Subject(s)

• Indigenous peoples of North America—Games [Browse]
• Indigenous peoples of North America—Sports [Browse]
• Indigenous Studies [Browse]

Editor

• Voorhies, Barbara [Browse]

Summary note

Prehistoric Games of North American Indians is a collection of studies on the ancient games of indigenous peoples of North America. The authors, all archaeologists, muster evidence from artifacts, archaeological features, ethnography, ethnohistory and to a lesser extent linguistics and folklore. Studies may center on a particular game (chunkey rolling disc game or patolli dice game, for example), on a specific prehistoric society and its games (Aztec acrobatic games, games of the ancient Fremont people), or, in one instance, on the relationship between slavery and gaming in ancient North American societies. In addition to the intrinsic value of pursuing the time depth of these games, some of which remain popular and culturally important today the book is important for demonstrating a variety of research methods and for problematizing an overlooked research topic. Issues that emerge include the apparently ubiquitous but difficult-to-detect presence of gambling, the entanglement of indigenous games and the social logic of the societies in which they are embedded, the characteristics of women's versus men's games or those of in-group and out-group gaming, and the close correspondence between gaming and religion. The book's coverage is broad and balanced in terms of geography, level of socio-cultural organization, and gender. Book jacket.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-353) and index.

Contents

• Why waltes was a woman's game / Kevin Leonard
• Playing the Apalachee ballgame in the fields of the thunder god : archaeological and ideological evidence for its antiquity / J. Grant Stauffer and F. Kent Reilly III
• "He must die unless the whole country shall play crosse" : the role of gaming in Great Lakes Indigenous societies / Ronald F. Williamson and Martin S. Cooper
• Chunkey and the historic experience in the Mississippian world / Thomas J. Zych
• The sacred role of dice games in eastern North America : implications for the protohistoric lower Mississippi Valley / David H. Dye
• Reinventing the wheel game : prestige gambling on the plains/plateau frontier / Gabriel M. Yanicki
• Gaming in Fremont society / Joel C. Janetski
• Mobility, exchange, and the fluency of games : promontory in a broader sociodemographic setting / Gabriel M. Yanicki and John W. Ives
• Social aspects of an Apachean stave-dice gaming feature at Three Sisters / Deni J. Seymour
• Serious play in the preclassic : the Chalcatzingo figurines as guides in a game of social learning / Mark E. Harlan
• Ancient Maya patolli / John Walden and Barbara Voorhies
• Sport and ritual as social bonding : the communal nature of Mesoamerican ballgames / Marijke M. Stoll and David S. Anderson
• Acrobatic dances and games of Mesoamerica as ritual-entertainment / Gerardo Gutiérrez
• Aztec gambling and magical thinking / Susan T. Evans
• The biggest losers : gambling and enslavement in native North America / Catherine M. Cameron and Lindsay D. Johansson
• Post-game remarks / Warren R. DeBoer.

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ISBN

• 9781607815594 ((hardcover))
• 1607815591

LCCN

2017021791

OCLC

969852643

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