 Sports and Games of Medieval Cultures Sally Wilkins Copyright © 2002 All rights reserved. Young Adult Published Hard Cover Published by GREENWOOD PRESS 296 pages ISBN 0-313-31711-9 $49.95 Read an Excerpt An examination of the games and sports played by people of different cultures during the thousand year span from the Fall of Rome to the invention of the printing press. We can learn so much about a culture by looking at the games they played. Comparing the wild, high-speed puukhai contests of Mongol archers with the formal, tightly structured Chinese lishe provides a glimpse into the contrasts between two distinctly different cultures. Equally interesting are the similarities between games played in far-flung corners of the globe: the math games of North America and equatorial Africa with startlingly similar rules, the familiar games of tag and catch that children everywhere have always played. Excerpt As the game [acedrex, or chess] changed and moved from India through Persia and into Europe the Indian elephants became bishops. Eventually the counselor would become a queen, and her power increased tremendously. The chariots became castles, which explains why the modern chess castle can travel so rapidly across the board. |
| Next > |
|---|