The roots of modern gaming lie in earlier religious formalities. What is the history of gambling as a ritual substitute for the hazard of real life?įor an answer we must go to history, ethnology, and archaeology: through their data we can see that contemporary gambling is a cultural residue, the survival of extinct ceremonial behavior. We watch a ritual substitution for the gamble that is life itself, a substitution that the Australian dare not make. When we watch the play at an American poker table or crap game, we observe behavior and conventions that are old, that are difficult to interpret in the contexts of modern life. Yet for them life itself is a daily gamble, and they do recognize methods for casting lots. Only the most archaic of hunting cultures, those of the Australian, the Pygmy, and the Bushman, seem to lack a tradition of gambling. Games and gambling seem to be world-wide in their appeal.
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