Contributors to this impressive volume consider diversity in social aspects of Native American games in Canada, the Great Lakes, the Great Basin, the US Southeast, and Mesoamerica. In her introduction, Voorhies draws upon historical, archaeological, linguistic, and ethnographic evidence to identify major themes of the volume and to discuss Chantuto dice games in precolumbian Chiapas, Mexico. Major themes include ritual and religious aspects of games, the roles of games in bringing different communities together, the stress management aspects of gambling, and the deep-time persistence of gaming.

Three chapters consider case studies from the Northeast and Great Lakes. Leonard connects the Mi'kmaw dice-and-bowl game in Nova Scotia to female practices such as agriculture, copper working, and pottery production and to activities associated with the supernatural being Turtle and with dog burials. He identifies worked charred plum pits as dice, and he relates the diffusion of copper, pottery, and agriculture to the circulation of women via the game. Yanicki relates wheel gaming to trade and interaction along the Ktunaxa-Piikáni frontier in Alberta. Historical evidence demonstrates its importance in offering prestige through ties to Old Man Napi and its role in affirming familial and other social connections. Leonard's discussion of both high- and low-stakes gambling shows that the game symbolized balance. Williamson and Cooper discuss Great Lakes games in terms of war, prestige, and religion by tying games to supernatural practices and beliefs, and they argue that gambling promoted social and political integration.

Three strong chapters discuss games in the Southeast and Midwest. Stauffer and Reilly demonstrate continuity in Apalachee stickball in Florida from prehistory through the contact period, and they argue that its seventeenth-century termination weakened political alliances. Iconographic and historical evidence indicates that the Apalachee recognized a particular office of authority that presided over the ball game and held other roles related to the thunder deity. Zych considers evidence of temporal and spatial uniformity in chunkey stones in the Cahokian world and the Mississippian Southeast, and he frames this discussion with reference to ideas about object biographies and ritual performance. Dye argues that the Tunica talus bone game in the Lower Mississippi Valley was adopted during the colonial era through interactions with several groups from the Eastern Woodlands and that its adoption was associated with religious transformations. He describes supernatural connections of the game in Menominee, Pawnee, and Winnebago/Ho-Chunk myths with Spirit Women, Sky Sisters, Red Horn, and the Morning Star. Such evidence indicates that game pieces in subadult burials may symbolize rebirth, reincarnation, and guardianship.

Three chapters discuss Fremont and Apache games of the Great Basin. Janetski focuses on Fremont sites and considers bone pins and cones, stone balls, stone and wooden discs, and painted wooden sticks in terms of decoration, size, and site origin. Careful ethnographic analogy guides interpretations that relate bone tinklers to the ring-and-pin game and ground/chipped stones and ceramic discs to other games. Yanicki and Ives consider Promontory Cave, showing proto-Apachean migration and incorporation of Fremont pottery but little crossover between Promontory and Fremont games. They interpret the discard of pieces as evidence of low-stakes gambling, and they connect higher-stakes games against outsiders to movements of women between groups, as evident from recent findings in genetic research demonstrating gene flow. Seymour connects oral history to the archaeology of Chiricahua Apachean stave dice, emphasizing the importance of women's gambling and matrilocality. In addition to archaeology, she analyzes land claim records and place-names, identifying some terms associated with games and gambling that she concludes are related to seasonality and intercultural connections.

Five chapters consider games from Mesoamerica. Harlan focuses on Formative-era figurines from Chalcatzingo, Morelos, Mexico, drawing on ethnography and archaeology to argue that games helped prepare children for adult lives. Walden and Voorhies describe a Maya dice game similar to the Aztec patolli. They offer a typology of game boards and describe Maya patolli as an important practice in private spaces rather than public domains, perhaps demonstrating different ritual roles played by the game in Aztec and Maya societies. Stoll and Anderson focus on the ballgame in Mesoamerica, highlighting nonelite aspects of the ballgame and its diverse social roles. They identify evidence of neighborhood integration and relations of reciprocity in present-day ballgames in Yucatán and Oaxaca. Gutierrez relates iconographic evidence of Mesoamerican acrobatic dances and ritual entertainment to religious beliefs; Tezcatlipoca's laughter created and destroyed the political system, while Quetzalcoatl's contortions and acrobatics marked his power over weather.

Two chapters consider large-scale comparative and theoretical approaches to the study of games and gambling. Evans develops an evolutionary perspective on gambling and magical thinking, and she argues that individuals utilized games and gambling in efforts to control the future within an animated Aztec world. Cameron and Johansson consider connections between enslavement and gambling in Native North America, using secondary sources to demonstrate that individuals enslaved through gambling had different statuses than those captured through warfare. DeBoer's concluding chapter recommends further study of the forms and seasonality of games and gaming in Native American cultural traditions.

Contributors to this volume capably weave archaeological, historical, and anthropological insights into convincing arguments that interpret the importance of games throughout the Americas. Archaeologists and others interested in these aspects of daily and ritual life have much to learn from this book.