One thing I noted, was the fact that people were able to get away with carving game boards into the stonework, essentially 'vandalism', but this was accepted.
Also, the fact that most famous board games of today are merely shallow versions of games taken from places like India. Games such as ludo and snakes and ladders had been stripped of both complexity and meaning of their predecessors, becoming devoid of purpose other than merely having 'fun' or passing the time.
It also seems that games once carried spiritual or religious meaning long ago, in quite the contrast to now with snakes and ladders (a game that is barely classified as a game, if not at all).
Hi Joe,
ReplyDeleteTake care with hyperbole (excessive overstatement).
While it may be the case that traces of colonialism can be seen in the appropriation, simplificaiton and commercialisation of some board games, it may be a generalisation too far to suggest this is the case with most board games.
Similarly, Snakes and Ladders is quite clearly a game, even if it is somewhat reduced in the simplified form that it is now known in.