“…In cultural anthropology, the main theoretical idea that has extended to abstract games is that by Roberts et al (1959) who hypothesized that “simple societies” should not play strategic games—a Eurocentric claim that was rather broadly defined and, therefore, includes most if not all board games—and should resist borrowing them. This work was later extended by Chick (1998) but criticized especially by those studying board games (see Crist, 2019; de Voogt, 2017b; Townshend, 1980) to the extent that the main hypothesis is no longer tenable (Chick, 2017; de Voogt, 2017a). Instead, theories developed in archaeology have been successfully applied to abstract board games addressing questions of cultural transmission (de Voogt et al, 2013; Hall & Forsyth, 2011), liminality (Crist, de Voogt, & Dunn-Vaturi, 2016), and social complexity (Crist, 2016, 2019; Rogersdotter, 2011).…”