Warra
The game Warra was described in 1919 by the Austrian anthropologist Felix von Luschan as a Mancala variant that is played in the states in the south of the United States , which are predominantly inhabited by African Americans . He observed it several times on the banks of the Mississippi River in Louisiana . In New Orleans , he was told that it was brought to San Francisco by colored people . The rules of the game were not handed down by Luschan and nobody seems to have scientifically researched the game.
Warra is likely related to artifacts that were mostly found on former plantations and which, it is believed, were used to play a variant of Mancala. These are buttons in Louisiana (Evergreen Plantation, Ashland-Belle Helene Plantation, Orange Grove (Jefferson Parish) and Oakley Plantation) and polished glass on several plantations in Virginia as well as the Robinson House and Nash Site in Manassas National Battlefield Park near Washington, DC - and ceramic fragments. Fragments of similar shape from 18th century English pottery have also been found at African American sites in Jamaica.
literature
- von Luschan, F. Connections and Convergence . In: Communications from the Anthropological Society in Vienna 1919; 48: 51-58.
- Samford, P. Searching for West African Cultural Meanings in the Archaeological Record . In: African-American Archeology: Newsletter of the African-American Archeology Network . Winter 1994 (Number 12).
Web links
- Mancala tokens , Nash Site ( Manassas National Battlefied Park )
- Mancala tokens , Robinson House ( Manassas National Battlefied Park )