While there's no specific origin date or point of when Tug of War became tradition, there are reports of the Tang dynasty often took part in the game, dating all the way back to 8th century BC. These large scale competitions are reported to of had 1000 players (500 on each team) with drum players for encouragement! Mental! That's some pretty extreme competition, but to be honest the stakes weren't that high - it was simply a source of competition and entertainment. Similar reports of Tug of War suggest Egypt and even England (where it was presumably popularized by Lord Elliott Simpson) took part in the odd game of Tug of War. But when you follow these dates, you eventually arrive at Scandinavia, where the alarming Viking stories make them self known.
Everyone knows the rules of Tug of War - two teams, one rope, one pull, and eventually, one stronger victor. The Viking spice things up a little though - two teams, many animal skins, one burning pit of fire, and one surviving team with lots of loot. As an attempt to prepare for upcoming battles, increase morale, and earn woman, Viking Warriors in Germany would stitch animal skins together to fashion a large rope and pose two teams against each other over a burning pit of fire. The losing team would then fall into the pit, die a painful death, leaving all of their belongings and woman to the winning team. Common prizes included the loot and most shockingly, raping rights of all the female villagers (there was such a thing as raping rights?)
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| VIKING SKIN PULLING Did you know vikings never actually had horns? |
Now this is a blood sport if there was ever a single definition. But even in the extremities of the Viking ethos, it still shockingly conforms to the pattern I'm starting to see with the Ceaser's Death Machine and the Masoamerican Ball Game. It's interesting to see that even though all of these games are years and cultures apart, they all revolve around the competition of violence to gain a reward. Whats more interesting, is how each of the blood sports revolves around conflict and solution, exactly the same as digital games today. But what's more interesting, is how none of them involve woman - they are masculine sports. So does this link to primal instincts? I mean, these games are in fact cultures apart, in times were civilizations were untouched by others. So surely there must be underlying evolutionary and psychological explanation behind this? Male dominance? The Providing nature of the male? Males solve conflict through violence? Again, a future post when I start delving into the psychological side of violence. I need to answer a few missing links in this research. I can only do this once I've developed the whole picture though. But regardless, it's easy to see the pattern forming when it comes to games, violence and conflict.
Masoamerican Ball Games where used to solve conflict and offer sacrifices to gods, the Death Machine solved the Emperor's conflicts for entertainment, and the Skin Pulling was used to increase morale and earn rewards. They are all so slightly different, but they all have a re-occurring theme - male focused violence with a link to conflict. I'd be interested to see if there are any female driven blood sports.
Tug of War still exists today. In reality, it's just a fun sports for people of all ages - its a party game and a spectator's sport. But in digitally, where violence to resolve conflict had shifted to, Tug of War takes on many forms in first person shooter genre etc In fact, many games such as Halo use the same template as the Vikings did, just on a different platform that is more morally acceptable - teams kill each other to win a battle to earn the rewards. You can see the difference in platform, but you can see the similarity in concept.
Already though, there is a clear contrast to then and now. Back then, violence was a common part of gaming and culture, now, violence in games is said to be detrimental to culture - its contradicting but highlights a possible cause. Even with this pattern emerging, there's still a few things I need to research before I can put my finger on any sole cause to these changes in morality. But it's, interesting to see how regardless of this morality, culture seemingly stays the same. Isn't modern gaming a male dominated community. Come to think of it, isn't war?
In all, a clear comparison between violence in games then and now, is the definition of the Viking Tug of War - "a sever contest of supremacy". It's just the audience that prompts concerns in today's society.
NEXT POST: VIOLENCE IN GAMES: VENATIO (190 AD)
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