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. Chapters sometimes center on a particular game (chunkey rolling disc game or patolli dice game, for example) or sometimes on a specific prehistoric society and its games (Aztec acrobatic games, games of the ancient Fremont people), and in one instance on the relationship between slavery and gaming in ancient indigenous 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 among Native Americans or within the broader society, the book is important for demonstrating a wide variety of research methods and for problematizing a heretofore 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.
Author(s): Barbara Voorhies
Publisher: The University of Utah Press
Year: 2017
Language: English
Pages: xvi, 369
City: Salt Lake City
Tags: Indians of North America--Games; Indians of North America--Sports; Social Science -- Ethnic Studies -- Native American Studies; Sports & Recreation / History.
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xiii
Foreword by George H. J. Abrams xv
1. Introduction 1
Barbara Voorhies
2. Why Waltes was a Woman’s Game 19
Kevin Leonard
3. Playing the Apalachee Ballgame in the Fields of the Thunder God: Archaeological and Ideological Evidence for Its Antiquity 34
J. Grant Stauffer and F. Kent Reilly III
4. “He Must Die Unless the Whole Country Shall Play Crosse”: The Role of Gaming in Great Lakes Indigenous Societies 48
Ronald F. Williamson and Martin S. Cooper
5. Chunkey and the Historic Experience in the Mississippian World 63
Thomas J. Zych
6. The Sacred Role of Dice Games in Eastern North America: Implications for the Protohistoric Lower Mississippi Valley 87
David H. Dye
7. Reinventing the Wheel Game: Prestige Gambling on the Plains/Plateau Frontier 104
Gabriel M. Yanicki
8. Gaming in Fremont Society 119
Joel C. Janetski
9. Mobility, Exchange, and the Fluency of Games: Promontory in a Broader Sociodemographic Setting 139
Gabriel M. Yanicki and John W. Ives
10. Social Aspects of an Apachean Stave-Dice Gaming Feature at Three Sisters 163
Deni J. Seymour
11. Serious Play in the Preclassic: The Chalcatzingo Figurines as Guides in a Game of Social Learning 178
Mark E. Harlan
12. Ancient Maya Patolli 197
John Walden and Barbara Voorhies
13. Sport and Ritual as Social Bonding: The Communal Nature of Mesoamerican Ballgames 219
Marijke M. Stoll and David S. Anderson
14. Acrobatic Dances and Games of Mesoamerica as Ritual-Entertainment 235
Gerardo Gutiérrez
15. Aztec Gambling and Magical Thinking 259
Susan T. Evans
16. The Biggest Losers: Gambling and Enslavement in Native North America 273
Catherine M. Cameron and Lindsay D. Johansson
17. Post-Game Remarks 286
Warren R. DeBoer
Contributors 297
References 299
Index 355
