ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the conceptual dimension of the historical study of games. It evolves around the following points: Studying the terms used in various periods to name games, game pieces or movements and rules and strategies related to gameplay might offer the historian an alternative window to the study of a past society. This applies to studying the development of these terms in time and their differences from place to place. Conceptual consciousness related to games and gaming is very important, not only in relation to their historical use but also for the study of games in general. Studying which social, cultural, political, religious and other concepts were included in a game or its gameplay in a specific period or place, and eventually comparing periods or places, might prove very productive for the historian. It might be equally productive to study how specific concepts are visualized in various games in the same period or in one game over a longer period of time. Among the various theoretical and methodological approaches that could serve conceptual clarity in the study of games and gaming, the author proposes and discusses the theory of “travelling concepts” and the double linguistic method of “onomasiology” and “semasiology”. This chapter closes with a study of how various social, cultural or political concepts are visualized in games.
