An Anthropology of Puzzles: The Role of Puzzles in the Origins and Evolution of Mind and Culture

231 Pages·2018·4.012 MB·English

by  Marcel Danesi

An Anthropology of Puzzles
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ii
An Anthropology of Puzzles
Th e Role of Puzzles in the Origins and
Evolution of Mind and Culture
Marcel Danesi
iii
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
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BLOOMSBURY , Bloomsbury Academic and the Diana logo are
trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2019
Copyright © Marcel Danesi, 2019
Marcel Danesi has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identifi ed as Author of this work.
Cover image: PictureLake/Getty
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
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book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret
any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to
exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Danesi, Marcel, 1946– author.
Title: An anthropology of puzzles : the role of puzzles in the origins and evolution
of mind and culture / Marcel Danesi.
Description: London, UK ; New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc, 2018. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2018030442| ISBN 9781350089853 (hb) | ISBN 9781350089860 (epdf) |
ISBN 9781350089877 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Puzzles—Social aspects. | Puzzles—Psychological aspects. | Cognition. |
Human evolution. | Brain—Evolution.
Classifi cation: LCC GV1493 .D33197 2018 | DDC 793.73—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018030442
ISBN: HB: 978-1-3500-8985-3
ePDF: 978-1-3500-8986-0
eBook: 978-1-3500-8987-7
Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
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Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables ix
Preface x
Acknowledgments xii
1 Puzzles in Mind and History 1
Riddles, puzzles, and games 2
Historical sketch 11
Main puzzle types 21
Solving puzzles 22
Puzzle archetypes 26
Puzzles and human intelligence 31
2 Riddles 33
Riddles as oral tradition 35
Solving riddles 41
Riddles and metaphor 44
Riddles and the origins of culture 48
3 Word Games 53
Anagrams and acrostics 54
Cryptograms 60
Word squares, word searches, crosswords, and doublets 71
Th e ludic nature of language 80
4 Visual Puzzles 83
Optical illusions 84
Vanishing tricks 92
Rebuses 97
Geometric puzzles 99
Th e tangram, the jigsaw, and the golden ratio 103
Mazes 107
Visual imaging 110
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vi Contents
5 Puzzles in Mathematics 115
Th e Ahmes papyrus 117
Th e magic square 119
Alcuin’s propositiones 127
Fibonacci’s L iber Abaci 130
Recreational mathematics 133
Mathematical method 141
Puzzle memes 144
6 Puzzles and Logic 151
Th e nature of logic 153
Th e Monty Hall problem 160
Paradoxes and cognition 162
Logic deconstructed 166
Sudoku 171
Logic and imagination 173
7 Puzzles and Human Intelligence 175
Homo ludens 176
Games of chance 182
Human intelligence 184
Mind and culture 189
Concluding remarks 194
References 199
Index 213
Figures
1.1 Gardner’s diagonal puzzle 4
1.2 Solution to Gardner’s diagonal puzzle 5
1.3 Th e Nine-Dot Puzzle 6
1.4 An incorrect solution to the Nine-Dot Puzzle 6
1.5 A solution to the Nine-Dot Puzzle 7
1.6 An ingenious version of the Nine-Dot Puzzle 7
1.7 Th e loculus aft er Cutler ( 2003 ) 8
1.8 Th e Knight’s Graph (from Wikimedia Commons) 10
1.9 A Latin Square 19
3.1 Th e Sator acrostic 58
3.2 Cipher in “Th e Gold Bug” (from Wikimedia Commons) 62
3.3 Stick fi gures in “Th e Adventure of the Dancing Men” (from
Wikimedia Commons) 63
3.4 Th e original word square puzzle 71
3.5 A word search puzzle 72
3.6 Solution to the word search puzzle 72
3.7 Th e original crossword puzzle (from Wikimedia Commons) 74
4.1 Th e Rubin illusion (from Wikimedia Commons) 83
4.2 Th e M ü ller-Lyer illusion 85
4.3 Th e Z ö llner illusion (from Wikimedia Commons) 86
4.4 Impossible staircase by Penrose and Penrose ( 1958 ) (from
Wikimedia Commons) 87
4.5 M ö bius strip (from Wikimedia Commons) 87
4.6 Klein bottle (from Wikimedia Commons) 88
4.7 Unfolding a cube 91
4.8 A hypercube (from Wikimedia Commons) 91
4.9 Loyd’s Get Off the Earth puzzle 93
4.10 Initial diagram of a disappearing line fi gure 94
4.11 Figure shown with upper and lower parts 94
4.12 Figure resulting from a slide 95
4.13 Reassembled fi gure 95
4.14 Renumbered fi gure 95
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viii Figures
4.15 Disappearance explained 96
4.16 Spot the diff erences puzzle (from Wikimedia Commons) 97
4.17 A rebus puzzle 98
4.18 Needle- throwing experiment (from Wikimedia Commons) 100
4.19 Th e tangram puzzle (from Wikimedia Commons) 104
4.20 Loyd’s tangram paradox (public domain) 104
4.21 Dudeney’s Two Monks paradox (from Wikimedia Commons) 105
4.22 Likely shape of the Cretan labyrinth (from Wikimedia Commons) 108
4.23 One of Lewis Carroll’s mazes (public domain) 110
5.1 Lo-Shu (from Wikimedia Commons) 120
5.2 Th e Yin-Yang opposition in Lo-Shu (public domain) 121
5.3 Middle cell in Lo-Shu 122
5.4 Magic square algorithm—part 1 123
5.5 Magic square algorithm—part 2 123
5.6 Magic square algorithm—part 3 124
5.7 D ü rer’s magic square 125
5.8 Franklin’s magic square 126
5.9 A solution to Kirkman’s puzzle 137
5.10 Simpler version of the Towers of Hanoi puzzle (from
Wikimedia Commons) 138
5.11 Solution to the Towers of Hanoi puzzle (from Wikimedia
Commons) 138
5.12 Loyd’s cryptarithm puzzle 140
5.13 Dudeney’s alphametic 140
5.14 Solution to Dudeney’s puzzle (from Wolfram Mathworld) 143
5.15 Th e Icosian game 146
6.1 Typical Sudoku puzzle 171
6.2 Solution to the Sudoku puzzle 172
7.1 A game of tic- tac-toe 176
7.2 Th e Fourteen/Fift een Puzzle (from Wikimedia Commons) 179
7.3 Th e Fift een Puzzle (from Wikimedia Commons) 180
Tables
3.1 Letter frequencies in English 69
5.1 Bachet’s puzzle in chart form 135
5.2 Towers of Hanoi chart 139
7.1 Generalization of the Dot-Joining Puzzle 175
7.2 Outcomes of throwing two dice 184
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