Philosophy
Had a student in my logic class mude with some friends about the universality of games. It turns out that kids in the US, Burma, and Nepal all play both hide and seek and freeze tag. Their question was whether that was an indication that these games were universal.
It seems like there are three options here:
(1) The commonality is the result of intercultural interaction. Colonization likely communicated a number of cultural artifacts in both directions and the game could have had one invention and been carried to other places.
(2) The games are simple enough that they arose independently in the same form. They are basic games requiring no equipment and with rules that are not complex, so it could be coincidence that disparate cultures would invent the same sort of games.
(3) The most interesting was their idea which was a sort of playtime Chomskian move, that the human mind is hardwired with a "game grammar" such that at certain times, human children everywhere will not only be led to play, but to play in certain well prescribed ways.
The additional bit of evidence they supplied was that terminology was not translation or transliteration. For example, in Burma, freeze tag is called statue tag and the person doing the tagging is not called it, but the tiger. If the game had been carried over, the rules likely would have brought with them the terminology, but here are terms that make more sense culturally.
So, while we would all, I think, want to say that play itself is a natural part of human life, especially childhood, are the particular games also universal and if so, in what way?
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Philosophy
Universality of Games
Had a student in my logic class mude with some friends about the universality of games. It turns out that kids in the US, Burma, and Nepal all play both hide and seek and freeze tag. Their question was whether that was an indication that these games were universal.
It seems like there are three options here:
(1) The commonality is the result of intercultural interaction. Colonization likely communicated a number of cultural artifacts in both directions and the game could have had one invention and been carried to other places.
(2) The games are simple enough that they arose independently in the same form. They are basic games requiring no equipment and with rules that are not complex, so it could be coincidence that disparate cultures would invent the same sort of games.
(3) The most interesting was their idea which was a sort of playtime Chomskian move, that the human mind is hardwired with a "game grammar" such that at certain times, human children everywhere will not only be led to play, but to play in certain well prescribed ways.
The additional bit of evidence they supplied was that terminology was not translation or transliteration. For example, in Burma, freeze tag is called statue tag and the person doing the tagging is not called it, but the tiger. If the game had been carried over, the rules likely would have brought with them the terminology, but here are terms that make more sense culturally.
So, while we would all, I think, want to say that play itself is a natural part of human life, especially childhood, are the particular games also universal and if so, in what way?
- Drinking Games
I had lunch yesterday with a Playground regular and had an interesting discussion about an element of college policy. Underage students are not allowed to possess alcohol, those of age are, but even those who may legally purchase and imbibe are not allowed...
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We picked up a great game, bananagrams. Don't let the cutesy name fool you, it's a good one. It's really just two sets of scrabble tiles with no point values. Each player gets 21 random tiles and it is a race to make a complete board out of...
- Should Pete Rose Be Reinstated?
...
- Non-transitive Dice To Blow Your Mind
When it comes to games of chance, there's usually a fairly easy way to win: cheat. Of course, if you get caught, the price you pay might be your knee-caps... Another way is to be up to date on your probability theory, play a game of non-transitive...
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Copy reads... Mr. Wells has developed his game so that the country over which the campaign is to be fought is laid out in any desired manner, with the aid of branches of shrubs as trees, with cardboard bridges, rocks, chalked-out rivers, streams and fords,...