Description

In considering the archaeological manifestation of conflict between peoples in ancient North America, greater attention should be given to gambling games. Across the continent, ubiquitous historic accounts describe gambling games as preferentially an intertribal activity, and further, to have a frequent synonymy with war. Gambling was a valorized pathway to prestige, both through the reputational benefit accrued by redistributing material winnings and through the direct wagering of earned social rank. Conversely, gambling could also have disastrous costs, leading to impoverishment, disgrace, enslavement, and even death. Ideal opponents for the highest-stakes games were thus found not among relatives sharing cooperative goals but among distant social groups among whom there also existed the potential for violent conflict. Gaming, then, represents a choice—not to fight, but to channel uncertain social prospects and tensions into more peaceable means. This position as a liminal activity, taking place on territorial frontiers and at large intertribal gatherings, puts gaming on the very forefront of cultural transmission and social exchange, with important implications. Intergroup competition results in a shared fluency of gambling games, transcending barriers of language and ethnicity. Evidence of common methods and materials allow ancient, region-spanning social networks to be identified. Not coincidentally, some of North America’s largest archaeological assemblages of gaming material are linked to moments of coalescence and the emergence of new social identity. Be it through maintaining networks of alliances over broad areas or forging new ties, gaming in the archaeological record tells the story of peoples staking shared futures together.