Juliette Moreau Alvarez 7:59 p.m., January 06, 2023

Board games, entertainment as old as the world.

For millennia, it has entertained us but also educated us.

It allows us to learn the social practices specific to our society, through subjects such as the economy, art, religion or even war.

Zoom on the history of these games full of more or less hidden values.

Every year around 1,200 new board games come to life.

In 2021, 30 million boxes were sold in France, testifying to the unfailing enthusiasm of the population for this entertainment.

And if board games have never experienced a shortage of players, it's because they evolve at the same time as civilizations.

It is not insignificant that the games call themselves "society".

More than a way to relax, games are also a reflection of social practices and the civilization in which they are created and produced.

Facing Dimitri Pavlenko, Élisabeth Belmas, professor emeritus of modern history at the University of Paris XIII and secretary general of the Scientific Interest Group "Games and Societies" and Dominique Desjeux, anthropologist and professor emeritus at the Sorbonne explain how games are become a mine of archaeological information.

Speaking of childhood, leisure, education, art, but also religion, economy or death, games are rooted in our social relationships.

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The mirror of beliefs and social evolutions

For example, between 200 and 400 BC, the game of sketches was on the rise, notes the aptly named Dominique Desjeux.

Created in 2500 BC, it is a mix between the game of goose and the game of chess.

It was played a lot during the great period of the Egyptian pharaohs and took the player to hell or the afterlife.

A very rooted issue, precisely, in Egyptian mythology.

"The game has to do with chance, with death, with health, and for me, it is the basis of the history of games", summarizes the anthropologist at the microphone of Europe 1.

Another Egyptian game evokes the form of a goose game, where a snake is rolled up on itself: it is the Mehen.

"It is all the more important from a symbolic point of view, as the snake is an animal with telluric forces", underlines Elisabeth Belmas.

"So yes, games reveal infinite things about societies and their evolution also says a lot about social transformations."

The game thus finds a function in each society.

The transition from polytheism to monotheism is felt in the ways of playing, for example, as are technical and technological developments.

According to Professor Emeritus Elisabeth Belmas, if its primary function is to entertain, it also serves to educate society, "to learn respect for others, to share".

We can cite the ancient game evoked by Plato, using cubes and containing "a whole series of values ​​useful for education".

The challenge of war games

In the Middle Ages in the 10th century, chess invaded Europe.

A significant moment in the development of the game as we know it today.

Later, in the 17th century, the game experienced a real and very important turning point.

At that time, the rules of the main games we currently play were fixed, in particular with the arrival of the card game, a paper derivative of chess.

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Chess, the most famous board game in the world, is considered the image of society but also of war.

The pawns clash, combine, until there is only one winner left.

This is the case with many games originating in the Far East and the Middle East.

The very old game of go, for example, allows you to socialize and prepare for the art of war.

In this game, "you have to conquer territories, corner your enemy, but not necessarily eliminate him", says Dominique Desjeux.

Monopoly, the best-selling game every year

When capitalist societies grew and western wars subsided, then came Monopoly, still today the best-selling game each year.

"The games reflect society", repeats Elisabeth Belmas on Europe 1. "It is interesting to see that Monopoly was created after the great economic crisis of 1929 and it is a game which is an emblem of capitalism."

Today, board games have become a real industry, which has experienced a breath of fresh air with confinement and the Covid crisis.

This is also the case with video games, which are perhaps the fruit of our current society, where technology is placed at the heart of our development.