Talk:Mancala

message: I found a nice public domain (written in 1894) source "Mancala, The National Game of Africa". It says:
::Mancala, the name which the Syrians give to this game, is a common Arabic word and means in this connection the "Game of transferring."
This makes sense to me. The Arabic root "nql" is indeed about transferring, moving and carrying (as far as I know with my beginner's level Arabic). On the other hand, the explanation currently given in the wikipedia article, that this word means losing in Arabic doesn't make sense to me. Can someone point me to the source of this explanation?
By the way, should we perhaps link to that public domain article?
Nyh
The "explanation" that mancala means in Arabic "to lose" remains on the page... Like I said in the paragraph above, I am disputing this "fact". Can someone else please confirm the "to lose" meaning, or agree that the explanation needs changing?
Nyh 21:42, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: The name

message: Awari (Artificial version of oware/wari invented by computer scientists)
:I removed this, because I can't find anything to indicate Awari in its most widely used sense is different from Warri, Wari, Oware, et al. I'd love to see evidence to the contrary, however. Kevin Saff 04:24, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: PS 24 April - there is at least one minor variation between the game solved by the CS guys and that in championship level games. Not sure this warrants mention as an "invented game" though. Kevin Saff 04:11, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Artificial version of Awari

message: There's a discrepancy in the History sections of Mancala and Oware.  Mancala says 'Even less is known about the age of the family of games, which is generally placed as between 1000 and 3000 years' while Oware says 'The mancala family of games has been in existence for at least 7000 years'. Bwallberg 01:54, 2004 Apr 24 (UTC)
:You're right.  Sources seem to disagree about the age of this game.  HJR Murray's History of board games other than chess supports the view of extreme age, while there is a more recent important paper published in a journal called "Board Game Studies" (or something like that) that claims there is little substantial evidence for an age older than 1000.  Unfortunately, I have not yet found an opportunity to see either of these sources first-hand, so I don't know which age is likely better, nor how to present the issues... Kevin Saff 04:11, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)
replies: text:  I've read the Murray book, but not the recent paper. However based on my own work I would agree with the later date. One of Murray's key pieces of evidence (the board at the temple of karnak dating 1400bc) seems to be considered unreliable these days. --Imran 10:06, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

text: This decision was done without considering all of the sources I am starting a more detailed section below.Tetron76 (talk) 13:32, 9 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Age of mancala

message: I just found this external link on the eddiem.com domain.  I am posting it here now because I don't want to lose it and because it may or may not be worth some sort of inclusion in the main article. Luis Dantas 20:01, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Other sources

message: The "General gameplay" section appears to have been defaced; an editor may want to revert to an earlier version if possible.  I'm effecting repairs now, but this may not be preferable since I don't know what the section looked like originally; also, my prose may not be as Wikipedia-refined as that of more experienced article-writers.  At the very least, the edit should bring the changes to the attention of an editor.
JohannVII (talk) 03:25, 2 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Defacement 

message: I'm removing the phrase "Gypsie jewels" from the Equipment section, as a significant number of Romani persons consider 'gypsy' to be a pejorative.  Additionally, the phrase amounts to inaccurate ethnic stereotyping - based on the context, I'm assuming the phrase refers to glass game stones, and not actual jewels owned or otherwise possessed by Gypsies. JohannVII (talk) 04:15, 2 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Use of "Gypsie" 

message: The sources that exist for games are fairly limited and there are many RS that effectively just cite another older source for the age. Here is a university press and one of the latest publications about Mancala:
*Game History, Content, Practice and Law, Sydney University Press, Brian Fitzgerald, Sal Humphreys, John Banks, Nicolas Suzor, 2007 
This clearly describes Mancala as the oldest game and gives a date from 7000 B.C. - 5000 B.C.
::These authors never researched mancala games (cite a source which proves they did) and have a very limited understanding.84.175.207.44 (talk) 07:33, 16 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: The point is that they accept the date and pass as a WP:RS. There are actually very few people who have researched the origins of Mancala and even fewer who have introduced new evidence.Tetron76 (talk) 16:04, 16 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: The point is that these authors have no authority and their opino is therefore of minor importance.84.175.251.136 (talk) 07:12, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

text: This work was published in a minor magazine, the authors haven't done any major research and they err when they write that it is generally accepted that [mancala games] have originated in the Neolithic period".84.175.207.44 (talk) 07:33, 16 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: It may be minor but the point is that it represents a recent research paper that cites the Schadler paper.Tetron76 (talk) 16:04, 16 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Verifiability

message: At this point I believe the correct step is to try to proceed with re-writing the history section. As it stands it is almost unreferenced and misquoting its sources at more than one occasion before you consider adding extra sources too.
To avoid the conversation that require original research and would be best dealt with through publication, I will take the most conservative approach with representing the sources but will include the possible facts from all of them. I will add my first draft soon when I have more time.Tetron76 (talk) 17:36, 20 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: History Section

message: Bantumi redirects here, I had this game on a mobile phone, it was named bantumi, article doesn't mention bantumi or phones/computers, doesn't need to be long description, one or two sentances should be enough. Bantumi doesn't appear in the list of Mancala games either. Carlwev (talk) 09:58, 5 July 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I am not familiar with the game. Picture ? Rules ? Try adding your own information, in the article or here. Wizzy…☎ 10:27, 5 July 2012 (UTC)
replies: text:  It is a commercialized variant of Kalah. I corrected the redirect.-84.175.180.158 (talk) 11:32, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Bantumi

message: Nobody knows the exact number of variants. A wiki site dedicated to mancala games lists more than 800 names of traditional mancala games from 97 countries, and almost 200 invented games. However, some names denote the same game, while some names are used for more than one game. --84.175.180.158 (talk) 12:56, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Variants

message: The title of Gobet 2009 
:
mentions awalé, but that name doesn't appear in the article. On the basis of the French article Awalé, § Other names, I'm adding awalé and awélé  as alternate names for owaré in the bullet list in the lede.
:Ce jeu s'est propagé dans de nombreux pays d'Afrique, puis aux Antilles|Caraïbes, c'est pourquoi on lui trouve de nombreux noms. En voici quelques-uns : wôli ou wali (bamanan ou bambara au Mali), adi (ewes au Ghana), awalé (Côte d'Ivoire), awari, awélé (Côte d'Ivoire et Ghana), ayo (Yoruba (langue)|yoruba au Nigeria), wure (Wolof (langue)|wolof au Sénégal), ourin, ourri (Cap-Vert), oware ou owaré (akan (langue)|akan au Ghana), wari (Caraïbes), etc. This game has spread to many countries in Africa and thence to the Caribbean, and for this reason is found under many names. Here are some of them: wôli or wali (bamanan ou bambara in Mali), adi (ewes in Ghana), awalé (Côte d'Ivoire), awari, awélé (Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana), ayo (Yoruba name in Nigeria), wure (Wolof name in Senegal), ourin, ourri (Cape Verde), oware ou owaré (Akan name in Ghana), wari (Caribbean), etc.(My translation. I have taken off the wikilinks in the original text above, which of course all point to articles in the French Wikipedia, and linked to the appropriate English articles in the translation.)
To discuss this, please  me. --Thnidu (talk) 03:52, 17 February 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  oware/awalé/awélé 

message: Mancala World is a far better source about mancala games than Wikipedia.
Modern sowing games at http://mancala.wikia.com/wiki/Modern_sowing_games lists 199 modern games, traditional mancala games at http://mancala.wikia.com/wiki/Traditional_mancala_games several hundred traditional games. There is also a list of 817 names of traditional mancala games from 99 countries at http://mancala.wikia.com/wiki/Names . More than 500 games have deen described at Mancala World complte with rules and their cultural background. --- 84.175.128.57 (talk) 08:38, 27 October 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mancala World, the most comprehensive source about mancala games