Jeu, normes et transgressions : introduction au dossier thématique

Abstract

This issue investigates the notions of norms and transgressions in Greco-Roman antiquity through the prism of play and games as fashioning as well as revealing a society. Six case studies range from Classical Greece to the High Roman Empire. Each one testifies to the capacity of games to create a space of social cohesion, as in the symposion or the sphaeristerium, by federating a community through the observance of common rules in a civic framework, but without institutional or temporal constraint. The ludic contract contributes to the assimilation of social norms and to the integration of individuals on the margins of the civic body, such as slaves and freedmen since childhood. A transgressive dimension manifests itself in different ways. It can be a form of social play, as in the reversal of the roles of masters and slaves during the Saturnalia. The ludic contract can also be broken by excess, either of gambling or of an inappropriate violence exercised on animals.

Keywords

• animal
• ball-game
• freedman
• game
• Lararium
• slave