“Have you any Bread and Wine?” Conflict and Reciprocity in a Traditional Children’s Game
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Abstract
In this article, I examine the traditional children’s game Roman Soldiers as a vehicle through which children contemplated community amid sectarian strife. Drawing on published and archival sources from Ireland, Britain, and the Americas, I suggest that children played with, critiqued, and, at times, subverted the conflicts that engulfed their societies through this game. In the process, children frequently highlighted the necessity of reciprocity for the maintenance of communal accord.
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