Gambling:
Historical Origins Part A
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Caveman Clip
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=6661868034435078117&q=survival+of+the+fitt
est&total=768&start=10&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Ancient Origins
• Supposition
• Risk taking has always been a part of
the human condition
• How does this relate to gambling?
• Are they the same at a deep level?
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
4
Social-Historical Origins
• Ancient story-tellers said that gambling was part of our
lives for a reason: A cunning god or hero taught people
to gamble.
• But they did not say if it was for the better or for the
worse.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Social-Historical (contd).
• We do not know who invented gambling.
• But we do know that gambling developed around principles of risk,
superstition, religion, and divination.
• Thus, as our ancestors began to use tools more than a half million
years ago, they began to modify stone, wood, and “bones.”
• Originally, gambling was not based on amusement, but for the
purposes of using supernatural or intuitive means to tell the future
or reveal information hidden to reason.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Odds and Evens: “The oldest Known
Divination Game”
• The oldest and most widespread divination games was “odds and
evens.”
• The essential elements of the game consist of using nuts or
stones. An individual(s) would ask a question of a priest/shaman
and the objects would then been thrown onto the ground.
• If the result was even, the answer to the question would be
“YES,” and if the odd the answer would be “NO.”
• However, such meanings and divination telling lacked colorful
interpretation . Thus, gaming/gambling would rely on more
meaningful interpretations and greater randomness.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Enter the Bones
• Eventually rolling astragali
(hucklebone) became the
popular medium and object by
which divination was decreed.
• The astragali had four
unsymmetrical large sides each
standing for a particular
outcome.
• Eventually each side would be
given a value.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Astragali and Throw Value
• Convex narrow
=1
• Convex broad
=3
• Concave broad
=4
• Concave narrow
=6
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Rolling the Bones: Divination and Beyond
•
Adding a bit of value and creativity ,
the line between gambling and
divination becomes blurred.
•
For instance, hunter gather parties
would roll the bones asking for
guidance on which direction to look
for game. Thus, in this instance they
were employing divination.
•
However, when the hunter gather’s
returned with the kill and rolled the
bones to determine who would
receive the best cuts, they were
gambling.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Early Societies and Gambling
•
While archaeologists continue to
uncover gambling objects, it
remains uncertain who first
developed gambling.
•
However, what appears to be
clear is that gambling appears to
be common to cultures
worldwide…
•
Except for, the native Australians,
Pacific Islanders, sub-populations
of subarctic of North America,
inhabitants of the more remote
reaches of India and South
America, and the eastern half of
sub-Saharan Africa.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Gambling a Human Species Phenomena
• As we turn to examine
gambling worldwide, a
second supposition about
humans and gambling can
be entertained…
– People “somehow resolve
to tolerate or ignore
gambling and then adapt
ideas to it.
– Moreover, as we venture
to examine gambling
cultures, we learn that
gambling did not spread in
connection to a particular
game, but its spread as an
“attitude”.
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(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
Middle East and Gambling
• Thus, it appears the
gambling and
societies go hand
in hand, with the
first astragali being
found between the
Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers,
present day Iraq.
13
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
A Closer Look at Astragali
•
These astragali were
uncovered in Athens.
•
These astragali were
uncovered in Pompeii.
•
These astragali were found
in uncovered in Eurasia.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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From Bones to Dice
• When the Mesopotamians began to file down hucklebones, the
first steps where taken to toward modern dice.
• It appears that the four sided astragali were at first transformed
into cubes, as theory would have it, so as to make them roll more
randomly.
• Because of variations in bone density and structure, though, these
cubical astragali wound have inevitably rolled unevenly.
• The next logical step was to carve more honest dice out of ivory,
wood, and other materials.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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The Rise of Dice
• Early dice are were not like modern ones, today opposites sides
add up to seven, while the Mesopotamian dice did not.
• The first known dice have one opposite six, two opposite three,
and four opposite five.
• Other dice from other locations have different orientations. It was
not until about 3,300 years ago that dice with sides arranged in the
standard way began to predominate.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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The Rise of Dice
• Interestingly, all dice from the past to the present have
used dots and not numerals to indicate value.
• Such a system predates the numeric system by 500
hundred years.
• Mesopotamians utilized dice to play many games, five
games have been found in the Royal tombs at Ur,
suggesting that gaming was a respectable activity.
• These games used four sided pyramidal dice.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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The Royal Game of Ur
•
The rules for UR or a ‘game of
twenty squares' are talked about
in cuneiform texts. It was a race
game, with two players trying to
beat each other to the end of the
board.
•
People in many parts of the
ancient world played the 'game of
twenty squares' and boards have
been found from Egypt to India,
and date from around 3000 B.C.
up until modern times.
•
A’ La Backgammon and
Parchessi.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Early Dice Games: Were the
Mesopotamians Gambling?
• While the games found and played in Mesopotamian
may have not been strictly gambling, their
archaeological history suggests that playing for
amusement, money, or strategy was more permeable
than it is today.
• For example, the game of Ur exemplifies “war
strategy,” a game of chance and risk-taking with the
highest possible stakes.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Some Examples of Dice
• All in all, games of
chance continued to
proliferate across
cultures worldwide with
dice being the preferred
tools of play.
• Dice from Iran: 2300
years old
• Dice from Rome: 1100
years old.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Some Examples of Dice
• Dice from Nepal: 500
hundred years old.
• Dice from
Switzerland 400
years old
• Dice from
Scandinavia 800
hundred years old.
21
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
Some Examples of Dice
• Dice from Hawaii 900
hundred years old
• Dice from England
300 years old
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Polyhedral Dice: Before Dungeons & Dragons…
• Are you sure?
Ancient Egypt
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Gambling Cultures: Further East
•
While the culture of gaming and
gambling was thriving
throughout sub-Saharan Africa,
Egypt and the Mediterranean,
so to was gambling thriving in
India.
•
And just as dice evolved from
astragali in the these societies,
in India, dice developed from
brown nuts of the vibhitaka tree.
•
Meanwhile, Indians also were
playing other games and
possibly could be accredited
with the domestication of
chickens so as to gamble on
their ferocious fighting known
today as “cock fighting”.
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(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
Gambling Cultures
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Indian a Gaming Culture?
•
As popular as gambling was in
Mesopotamia, India appears to
eclipsed such a popularity.
•
For instance, one of the oldest
known religious book in the world,
the Rig Veda, an ancient collection
of 1000 religious hymns, which was
compiled over two hundred years,
provides evidence that gambling, for
better or worse, was a mainstay of
Indian culture.
•
Hymn 34 in the tenth mandala is
known as the gamblers hymn. The
creation of such a hymn is believed
to be have authored by gambling
sage apparently who had lost
everything through gambling. . .
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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The Gambler’s Hymn
SPRUNG from tall trees on windy heights, these rollers transport me as they turn
upon the table. The enlivening Vibhīdaka has pleased me like the draught of Soma
from Mujavant. She never vexed me nor was angry with me, but was ever gracious
to my friends and me. For a dice which scored one too much, I drive away my own
devoted wife. My wife drives me away, her mother hates me: the wretched man
finds none to give him comfort. [They say:] "I find no more use in a gambler than in
an aged horse which is for sale." Others embrace the wife of him whose riches the
victorious dice have coveted: Father and mother and brothers say about him [to the
landlord's men]: "We know him not: tie him up and take him away." When I resolve
"I will not play with them, I will remain behind when my friends [= fellow-gamblers]
depart [to play]", and the brown dice, thrown on the board, have rattled, like a fond
girl I seek the place of meeting.
The gamester seeks the gambling-house, and wonders, his body all afire, "Will I be
lucky?" The dice run against his desire, giving the best throws to his adversary.
Dice, verily, are armed with goads and driving-hooks, deceiving and tormenting,
causing grievous woe. They give gifts like boys [do], and then snatch them back
from the winner,[they are] sweetened [as] with honey with magic power over the
gambler. Their troop of three-times-fifty plays [as undefeatably] as Savitr the god
whose ways are faithful. They bend not even to the anger of the mighty: the King
himself pays homage and reveres them.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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The Gambler’s Hymn
Downward they roll, and then spring quickly upward, and, handless, force
the man with hands to serve them. Cast on the board, like lumps of magic
charcoal, though cold themselves they burn the heart to ashes. The
gambler's wife is left forlorn and wretched: the mother mourns the son
who wanders homeless. In constant fear, in debt, and seeking money, he
goes by night to the home of others [probably to steal]. Sad is the
gambler when he sees a woman, another man's wife, and his wellordered dwelling.
He yokes the brown horses [= the dice] in the early morning, and in the
evening he sinks down beside [his] fire, a beggar. To the great captain of
your mighty army [of dice], who has become the host's imperial leader, To
him I show [my] ten [extended fingers]: "I speak the truth: No wealth am I
withholding.""Play not with dice, [but] cultivate your corn-land. Enjoy the
gain, and deem that wealth sufficient. There are your cattle, there your
wife, O gambler": So this good Savitr himself has told me. Make me your
friend: show us some little mercy. Do not forcibly bewitch us with magic
power. Let your wrath [and] emnity now come to rest. Let the brown [dice]
now snare some other captive.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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In your opinion. . .
• What is the meaning
of the gamblers
Hymn?
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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DSM-IV Pathological Gambling Criterion
To be conferred /deemed a pathological gambler an individual must exemplify 5 of the following characteristics
1) Preoccupation with gambling;
2) Need to gamble with increasing amounts to achieve a elevated arousal;
3) Unsuccessful efforts to control, or stop gambling;
4) Agitated or irritable when attempting to reduce gambling;
5) Gambling as a way to escape dysphoric moods;
6) Returning after a losing day, to get even;
7) Lying to family and others about extent of one’s gambling;
8) Performing illegal acts to finance gambling;
9) Putting at risk a job, significant relationship or education to gamble;
10) Relying on others to provide money to help financial status caused by
gambling.
The sole exclusionary criterion where an individual is not deemed to be a pathological
gambler, despite having the latter 10 characteristics, is that their gambling is better
explained as being due to bi-polar disorder (DSM-IV-TR [APA, 2000] p. 199).
30
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
Similarities Between DSM
and Gamblers Hymn?
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Asian Culture and Gambling
• East of India, the cultures of eastern Asia can
be said to rival the greatest of any gambling
culture.
• Here, gambling for stakes was held the highest
of intensity, beginning in the Shang dynasty
nearly 4000 years ago.
• Again divination and seeking to interpret
events led the way, with Chinese oracles
holding great power for their adeptness.
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Asian Culture and Gambling
• 1700 years later, gambling for stakes became
entrenched in the Chinese mindset.
• Types of games played during the next two
thousand years included:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Animal fighting (from quails to crickets)
Board games
Dog races
First lottery (1000 AD)
Dice games turned into dominoes
Mahjong
Forerunners of bingo and keno
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZaogu88pc0
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
Gambling and Roman Times: A
Metaphor For Life Itself
•
[Pliny the Elder] contemplating existence:
“We are so much at the mercy of chance that Chance is our God”….
•
[King Turnus] in preparing for battle:
“Fortune favors the brave”…
[Caesar] on the brink of civil war:
“The die is cast”…
[Nero] on being a gentleman:
“True gentleman always throw their money about”…
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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Myths and Legends: Bones to Dice
Summing Up
•
Revenge over murders and wrongful
deaths
•
Lessons and trials
•
Gods invented gambling
•
Gambling implicated in creation of
earth and division of heavens
•
Creation of modern calendar
•
Birth, Death and Resurrection
•
Kingdoms created, lost, and won due
to gambling
•
Gambling is a sin
•
Gambling sanctioned by moralists
Gaming, gambling,
culture, economy,
and personhood,
were all intertwined
(Solowoniuk, 2007-2009).
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