Sungka

 

I found this entry on Flickr, in the group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/gamesboardandotherwise/pool/

Sungka is a traditional Filipino Game played by two participants. The objective of the game is to amass stones or cowrie shells in the player’s home base by continuously distributing the shells around smaller holes until the player runs out of shells to distribute. The person who collects the most shells in his or her base wins.
The container shown here is carved from molave wood.

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Skipping Rope

well used toy

Originally uploaded by louise.design

Skipping is also called “jump rope”. It can be done individually or with a group. Children often chant traditional rhymes to the beat of the rope on the ground.
This skipping rope has nice wooden handles, but handles are not necessary. Even “rope” is not necessary!! A nineteenth-century book of English games describes the use of a hop stem (the stem of the hop plant – stripped of its leaves) as being preferable to a rope. Would that be called a “hopping rope” then!!??

Quickgammon Backgammon

Quickgammon Backgammon

Originally uploaded by digivangelist

This game has been around for centuries in India, Persia and the Near East. In the first centrury it was given the name “tabula” (a table or “tables”). For a long time, it was esteemed as highly as chess. The crusader knights carried it on their campaigns.
In the middle ages in England it acquired its present name – gammen being “game” in Middle English, and “back” because in certain circumstances, the pieces are obliged to go back and reenter the board.

Jacks

In Maubisse, in the central highlands of East Timor, these girls were playing jacks with rocks on the roof of an old broken-down bus.

Playing on a palm leaf

I watched these boys in Dili, East Timor, for over an hour – just pulling each other around on this palm leaf.

Why Games?

Last night I watched a program on ABC TV about COMPUTER GAMES, and was horrified by how much they have taken over our “modern world” (more about that program later). I have always had a fascination with “low tech” games, and have been amazed at how universal some games are, being played in somewhat similar forms on different continents, and having changed little over time, either. So, this is my attempt to collect pictures and information about these games, to reassure myself, that we are NOT becoming a world where play is only “virtual” and our children’s heroes and role models are only to be found on a screen.

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