Game

Item number 1954.129 from the MAA: University of Cambridge.

Public

Item Records

This page shows all the information we have about this item. Both the institution that physically holds this item, and RRN members have contributed the knowledge on this page. You’re looking at the item record provided by the holding institution. If you scroll further down the page, you’ll see the information from RRN members, and can share your own knowledge too.

The RRN processes the information it receives from each institution to make it more readable and easier to search. If you’re doing in-depth research on this item, be sure to take a look at the Data Source tab to see the information exactly as it was provided by the institution.

These records are easy to share because each has a unique web address. You can copy and paste the location from your browser’s address bar into an email, word document, or chat message to share this item with others.

Data
Data Source

This information was automatically generated from data provided by MAA: University of Cambridge. It has been standardized to aid in finding and grouping information within the RRN. Accuracy and meaning should be verified from the Data Source tab.

Description

A set of 60 gambling sticks variously marked with black and red bands, in a leather pouch with a small ivory toggle of Inuit manufacture. The sticks are of a fine grained hardwood and all have the patina of use.; Good

Context

Provenance is given as from Vancouver, B.C. The original European tribal names and, where possible, current tribal names have both been given in separate GLT fields.; A note on the catalogue card states, The game is played by various N.W. Coast tribes, see Culin : Chess and Playing Cards. Sept. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1896, page 906. G.T.Emmons' s The Tlingit Indians , Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, No.70, 1991, has a substantial section on Tlingit gambling sticks, pages 413-414, from which some of the following information was extracted. The uniformity of the size of the sticks was carefully ensured during manufacture using a gauge hole through which each stick was passed. The designs on the sticks were sometimes of encircling bands in red and black, which were named after animals, manufactured objects, etc. and in each set there may be several with the same design. The designs had no value but rather served to identify the sticks. One game was played by shuffling the sticks under a bundle of shredded cedar bark and then the sticks were divided into separate bundles, the opponent betted on which bundle a particular stick was in.