General Discussion

Finally, before moving forward with the definition of Native American dice presented above, it is important to note that the connection inferred here linking ancient dice with games of chance and gambling should not be interpreted as necessarily excluding the possibility that these dice were also used for other purposes, such as divination. Indeed, the use of dice (often binary lots) as a tool for divination has been documented ethnographically, historically, and archaeologically across the globe (e.g., Beerden [Reference Beerden2013], who discusses divination with dice in ancient Greece and Rome; Beeri and Ben-Yosef [Reference Beeri and Ben-Yosef2010], who discuss divination with dice in ancient Syria and Israel; Culin [Reference Culin1898], who discusses ethnographic examples of divination with dice in China, India, Japan, Korea, Liberia, Melanesia, New Zealand, Tibet, and Zimbabwe).

However, in North America, the evidence for a connection between dice and divination is sparser. Although Culin (Reference Culin1907) conducted an exhaustive study of the ethnographic record of Native American dice and their uses, he identified only one example of a reported connection with divination. He wrote, “I have no direct evidence of the employment of games in divination by the Indians apart from that afforded by Mr. Cushing’s assertion in regard to the Zuni sholiwe” (Culin Reference Culin1907:35). Moreover, the use of dice for divination in this one case appears to be less of an independent or alternative use for dice than an adaptation of a preexisting practice of using dice for games and chance and gambling. In the Zuni sholiwe, the act of divination was itself a game of chance in which priest-gamblers acting as proxies for the divine forces understood to be at play competed in an otherwise familiar dice game, with the winning player being seen as indicative of the forces then ascendent in—and therefore the probable outcome of—the matter under consideration (Culin Reference Culin1907:35, 210–225). Consequently, the record compiled by Culin provides only minimal support for the proposition that ancient Native American dice were used for divination as opposed to or in addition to for games of chance and gambling.