History / Games. Robin Burke GAM 206

Transcription

1 History / Games Robin Burke GAM 206

2 Admin o Handouts from 1 st class o Syllabus o Research paper o Gameplay leader sign up o x slot for Senet o y slots for Chess o W slots for Faro o z slots for Pokemon o Leader session on Wednesday!

3 Research paper oso far only two games claimed ogo oshogi o Deadline o A week from today

4 Outline o What is History? o What do historians do? o Historical sources o Historical interpretation o Games o Defining games o Analyzing games o Games as historical sources

5 History o "the stories we tell about our prior selves" (Howell & Prevenier, 2001) o Accurate, but not very helpful o what stories should we tell? o on what basis are such stories created? o The question of what makes a good / correct / accurate history story is (still) very controversial

6 The 5 C's o Change o what is different from one era to another? o what is different between the historical past and contemporary present? o Context o what is the environment in which things happen? o how does the context illuminate what happened? o Causality o what are the causal links that we can determine? o what are the most important causes and which are secondary? o Contingency o how does "knowing the answer" blind us to circumstances? o what are the unrealized potentials in historical situations? o Complexity o how can we avoid simplistic explanations of the past? o how can we tell a coherent story when there is not much evidence? (historian as detective)

7 GOFH o Good Old Fashioned History o probably what you learned in high school o Stories about o states and rulers, battles, treaties, names and dates o Change o big political changes o Context o state power o Causality o actions of great men

8 Many Others o Marxist History o Stories about economic and political inequality, oppression and resistance, the evolution of social classes and their conflict o Social History o Stories about social groups and institutions and their interactions: the family, professional societies, clans o Cultural History o Stories about cultural concepts: love, honor, democracy, civilized behavior; conflicts over the meaning and expression of these ideas o Intellectual History o Stories about schools of thought and scholarship. How thinkers influenced each other and gave rise to new ideas o Technological History o Stories about technologies: their invention, spread and impact. o There are more: "feminist history", "post-colonial history", etc.

9 o Balance Why? o there is lots of GOFH o room for other kinds of stories o Deeper causation o "big events" don't occur in a vacuum o Thorough interpretation o history is written by the victors

10 Controversy o Florida Education Omnibus Bill (2006) o "American history shall be viewed as factual, not as constructed, shall be viewed as knowable, teachable and testable, and shall be defined as the creation of a new nation based largely on the universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence." o Trying to defend GOFH

11 This class o Cannot study "great men" o few are known o Cannot study names and dates and treaties o none exist o Cannot study influential texts of ancient scholars o games were (mostly) considered beneath serious study o games were communicated informally o Games are cultural phenomena o need a cultural approach

12 Our Questions o Context o How was the game played? By whom? Where? In what circumstances? o Appeal o Why was the game fun, interesting, compelling, challenging, or otherwise engaging for its players? o Interpretation o Why was the game culturally significant? What does the game and its popularity reveal about the society that (produced and) played it?

13 What historians do o How do we tell "stories of our prior selves"? o Three main activities o gathering evidence osources o analyzing and interpreting sources o synthesizing the results o"telling the story"

14 Types of sources o Physical evidence o relics oartifacts used or created in the past o remains obodies and associated evidence o Testimony o oral and written evidence

15 For this course o Artifacts o game pieces o game boards o other materials o Documents o writings about games o writings in which games appear o images in which games appear

16 Sources o Created by particular individuals o in a particular context o for a particular purpose o Sometimes o intended to record something for posterity o sometimes not o Sometimes o require considerable interpretative effort o"construction"

17 Example o Chatrang-namak o manuscript from 1323 o reports about the introduction of chess into Persia from India o first written 500 years before o about events from 800 years before o Describes the invention of nard (backgammon) as a response to the gift of a chess set o we know that nard is older so this cannot possibly be true o typical legendary exaggeration o we learn what the Persians believed about the origins of chess o can match this with other evidence about contacts between Persia and India

18 Primary vs Secondary o Distinction depends on the question being asked o more later o Primary sources o created at the time under study o by the individuals under study o Secondary sources o summaries or responses to sources o often by other historians

19 First-hand vs second-hand o First-hand o diaries o memoirs o oral reports / interviews o photographs o Second-hand o newspapers o fictional accounts o trial records

20 Credibility o How much faith should we place in a source? o Intent o a source unintentionally created may be more credible o what I say about my spending vs my bank statement o a public, political or persuasive text may be less credible than a personal one o diary vs op-ed piece o a normative account may be less credible o laws regulating gambling vs police records of arrests of gamblers

21 Example o Firing of federal prosecutors o why did this happen? o Sources o speeches by Pres. Bush o speeches by members of Congress o s o interviews by fired prosecutors

22 Example o "The Alphonso Manuscript" o Spain,

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24 Features o Rules of chess o the book describes the pieces and their moves on the board oif you can read old Castillian o Manufacturing o the book shows chess pieces being made o Chess problems o the book contains 89 chess problems

25 Analyzing sources o How would we know if this source is what it claims to be? o What questions could we ask of this source? o What is the point of view of the source?

26 Pieter Bruegel, the Elder Children's Games ( )

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28 o Authenticity o Questions o Point of view Analysis

29 Secondary sources o Parlett, "Oxford History of Board Games" "Herodotus credits the invention of cubical dice to the Lydians of Asia Minor. Murray endorses this, none being known from Egypt before the 7th century BC, and those found subsequently mostly belonging to the Roman period. They reached India in the 6th century AD as instrumental to the Persian game of Nard, but never displaced the pasa in native Indian games."

30 o Authenticity Analysis o not so much of an issue here o although it is an electronic document... o Questions o Point of view o Who wrote this? o Who is the audience? o For what purpose? o What is the main argument?

31 Research Project Sources o Need to have three primary sources o the game is one o can be manuscripts, images, artifacts o Enough secondary sources to write your paper o only one secondary source can be an Internet source o Preliminary bibliography o due 10/1 o 3 primary sources o 3 secondary sources

32 Preliminary Bibliography o Primary sources o game counts as one o Reference o Chess, ca Rules from... As cited in... o Secondary sources o source of rules counts as one o Eales, R. (1985) Chess: The History of a Game. New York: Facts on File. o Need to have two more of each o only one secondary source can be online

33 Games and Play o What is this all about? o Should we care? o What can we hope to learn by studying the history of games? o Three answers o historical insight: we will understand something about historical times and places o appreciation: we will be better able to appreciate this very ancient form of human activity o contemporary parallels: we will be better able to understand today's games

34 Why do we play? o Many approaches to this question o evolutionary o psychological o sociological o cultural/historical

35 A Working Hypothesis o Play is the exercise of our physical and mental capacities in a constrained, low-risk environment o To play is to learn to get better at something o in an environment of reduced stress o Evolution has wired us to enjoy playing o so that we work to master skills o so that we learn a skill in a safe environment before needing it in a highstakes one

36 But o Play is also something else o Play is non-rational and nonproductive o Games bring out superstitions o Play (like humor) provides neutral ground o in which the unmentionable can be spoken o even "played with"

37 Forbidden Play o Aggression o Deception o Obsession o Transgression

38 Examples o Balinese cockfight (Geertz, 1973) o Convivial social activity among nonconfrontational people o Savage blood sport o Betting is usually along clan lines o Proxy competition between political rivals

39 Example 2 o Missile Command o Arcade game o Play with death via nuclear annihilation

40 Wednesday o Game learning session o I will bring game materials o bring Pokemon cards if you have them