Cultural Transmission in Printed Games of Cupid: Tracing Lines of Descent

The Game of Cupid is a simple dice-based race game derived from the Game of the Goose in about 1600. Twelve different examples, covering the period to about 1850 and drawn from France, the Low Countries and Britain, are analysed according to distinctive markers that include rules, game board configuration and decorative elements, showing that the evolution of the game can be described by a single tree of descent. The forces governing this evolution are discussed. The results may be of interest to those investigating whether different aspects of a complex cultural trait – such as a board game that has rules, a board and decorative elements – follow separate cultural transmission processes.