In this classic study, first published in 1895, a leading anthropolist maintains that games "must be regarded not as conscious inventions, but as survivals from primitive conditions, under which they originated in magical rites, and chiefly as a means of divination. Based upon certain fundamental conceptions of the universe, they are characterized by a certain sameness, if not identity, throughout the world.... They furnish... the most perfect existing evidence of the underlying foundation of mythic concepts upon which so much of the fabric of our culture is built...."
Because Culin believed that modern games in the West had almost completely lost their original meaning, and that it was practically impossible to trace them back to their earliest origins, he turned to the East, specifically Korea, where many games still survived that connected the present to the remote past. Nearly 100 Korean games are described: snow-man, doll play, kite fighting, wind-mill, grass gaming, shoe shooting, five gateways, clam-shell combat, pitch pot, four-field, measure taking, tail joining, squash donkeys, fist-striking and scores of others. Also included are universally popular pastimes as blind-man's buff, hide-and-seek, cat's cradle, dice, backgammon, chess, dominoes, leap-frog, tug-of-war, tops, see-saw, tag and many more. Over 170 photographs and illustrations enhance the text; most of the illustrations are by native artists.