![]() Their present diversity, we may conclude, is the product of a complex evolution whose reconstruction, interesting in its own right, would also help illuminate the (largely unknown) history of cultural contact and human displacement which has taken place in the Asian and African continents outside the boundaries of the written record. Their antiquity appears to be on the order of several millenia. M ancala is a family of games of calculation, played widely in Africa and Asia, whose details differ profoundly from one venue to another, but whose distinctive features point persuasively to a common origin. This study highlights the difficulty in identifying the material remains of board games, as well as the need to include the game – being a basic human activity- in the potential interpretations of archaeological records from the Mycenaean period. Under this hypothesis, context finds from the Room Θ3 deposit are also examined. The facts suggest that the Θ3 assemblage artefacts could have been markers for a kind of game, for which games of strategy, skill and chance known in the Eastern Mediterranean, are suggested as possible candidates. The find is examined in detail, in comparison to other large cone shell groups from Mycenaean contexts. This assemblage includes the largest collection of cone shells known from the Late Bronze Age Aegean, and it is now possible to attempt an interpretation of its use, after the publication of the Southwest Quarter excavation. 353 cones were intentionally pierced and ground, and 9 of them were filled with lead. In 1974 in Room Θ3 of House Θ in the Southwest Quarter of the Mycenae citadel, an extraordinary find came to light: 545 conus mediterraneus ventricosus shells were found together with 12 small objects in a crevice of the bedrock. Despite the null results, I explore how related hypotheses and studies can build on the comprehensive mancala database. Using historical and contemporary data, I do not find evidence for either hypothesis. I compile the first comprehensive database of mancala games in Africa matched to ancestral characteristics data, and for 18 African countries, to the Afrobarometer survey data. I revisit this hypothesis with better data and motivated by anecdotal evidence, introduce a contemporary hypothesis, origins of entrepreneurship hypothesis-that descendants of societies that played complex man-cala games are more likely to be engaged in non-farm self-employment today. Anthropology literature suggests that these games may be associated with socioeconomic complexity of the ethnic groups-the so-called games in culture hypothesis. This study examines the correlational relationship between the historical playing of indigenous strategic board games (also called mancala) and the socioeconomic complexity of African ethnic groups as well as the incidence of entrepreneurial pursuits. The tourism stakeholders such as destination marketing organizations should consider the factors such as leisure, refreshing the mind, the attraction of locals and tourists to Bao, and the sense of belonging to a group or community when promoting Bao as sports tourism. Researchers in other parts of the world, such as South Asia, where mancala board games are played, can conduct similar studies and even go beyond to apply a quantitative approach to further understand the phenomenon of mancala from a tourism marketing perspective. Further findings revealed that a sense of belonging to a group and a sense of belonging to a community is how residents perceive Bao as sports tourism. The main findings revealed that perception of Bao as sports tourism from residents’ views such as leisure, refreshing the mind, locals and tourists are attracted to Bao, can play Bao with family and friends, and locals and tourists join playing Bao. ![]() Purposive sampling was used to select the respondents, and the collected qualitative data was subjected to content and thematic analysis. An interpretivism paradigm approach was applied, and the data collection instrument was designed with open-ended questionnaire to gather data from the respondents. To expand the literature, this study focuses on Bao from a sports tourism perspective by exploring the perception of Bao as sports tourism from the residents’ views. Existing literature on Bao as a board game is mostly from a historical, educational, and cultural angle, whilst there is less attention on the potential of Bao as sports tourism. ![]() Sports tourism is one of the ways for countries to rebuild the tourism sector.
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