Debra Westerman TAL 850/488-5090 wrote:

> Couldn't it be classified as a ceremonial artifact with a standard
> object term of "card, prayer" and then use a common or alternative
> name category where Tarot could be placed?  The same problem would
> also arise with Runes or a Crystal Ball.
>         Debra Westerman
>         Museum Registrar
>         Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
>         [log in to unmask]

I thought that 'card, prayer' is a term meant to use for 'prayer cards'
--small cards with prayers printed on them.   I'm not sure how they were
used (personally or given to another person?) but they seem to be quite
different in function than Tarot Cards which, according to my Websters
are "a deck of 78 playing cards, with 22 of them used for fortune
telling and as jokers in the game of tarot"  So it would be misleading
to use the same term for both.

After further consideration, based on the Webster dictionary
description, I'd now vote to use a Nomenclature classification of
Recreational Artifacts/Game and the term "deck, card" which then says
"use for standard playing cards.... such as bridge or pinocle"  (eg. is
Tarot any more non-standard than pinocle?)

The only other option would be to decide that Tarot is a game so unto
itself that the card deck can't be called 'standard), and add the term
Tarot under the Game category (as is cribbage, a card game albeit with a
special score keeping device).

Either way, it would then be very important to cross-reference it with a
subject heading such as I mentioned in my last posting (Murdock's term
'revelation and divination') to retrieve the item with other artifacts
used for (but not necesarily originally made for) the human activity of
fortune telling.
    Thanks to Janis for providing us with this intriguing mental
excersise.  It would be fun to tackle some more 'puzzlers'.

Lucy Skjelstad