Syllabus

Pregame

The unknown side of games

Setting the board

Identifying “Games of History”

Quick start guide

Definitions and classifications

Defining “play”

Defining “game”

Defining “gaming”

Classification of Games

Conceptual approaches to games

Concepts in games

The “magic circle”

Travelling game concepts

Game onomasiology and semasiology

Visualisation of game concepts

Games of Culture

Reflecting on culture

Games as sources of cultural history

Games as sources for cultural values

Games and cultural meetings

Games and cultural memory

Games as sources of cultural power

Games and material culture

The case of Civilization

Games of Society

Games and social history

Games as social worlds

Games as agents of socialization

Games, equality and inequality

Games and education

Games of Politics

Games and political history

French Revolution playing cards

Games as agents of visual communication

Games as sources of political history

Games and diplomacy

Games and “low politics”

Antigaming legislation

Games of Fortune

Games and economy

Games, capitalism and business

Games and gambling

Cockfighting in Bali

Antigambling regulations

The “gambler-state”

Games of Gender

Games, gender, and Eros

Gender in historical studies

Games, gaming and femininities

Games, gaming, and masculinities

Games of Eros

Chess and erotic love

The Royal Game of Cupid

Games of Metaphysics

Games and metaphysics

Senet, death, and the soul

The game of Tarot

Tarot and the occult

Games and divination

Snakes & Ladders, religion and culture

Games as metaphysical didactic tools

Religious reactions to games

Did you know …

… that chess was played in medieval times with dice?

… that animal bones were used as dice before the invention of dice?

… why the Ace of Spades is visually different than the other three aces?

… what a teetotum is?

… that there are pyramid-like dice that are four millennia old?

… that for some people backgammon is more than a game?

… that backgammon is in in some areas a gendered game?