String Figures

In 1939 a small questionnaire was distributed among the small-farmer community of southern Sweden. The results of this questionnaire are presented here. Many of the figures and tricks encountered are found also in other places in Europe and in the world. The Cat's Cradle series (in Sweden called " att ta ") appears to be very popular in southern Sweden; one route in it is probably original. The questionnaire contains also a small two figure series for one player called " bordet/brevet " , which has until now not been described elsewhere in this form. A curious " figure " is the krampknut (" cramp-knot "), a string-knot with which the legs of chickens were tied when they had cramped feet. The article is based on material from The Folklife Archives in Lund, Sweden.

Eleven different string figures are presented as they were made in 1969 by Tatanniq, a Harvaqtuurmiut Inuit, and filmed by Eugene Arima. Comparative remarks follow each figure. One figure (Baker Lake 8) is probably presented here for the first time. The construction method for another figure (Baker Lake 10) has not been recorded previously. The collection contributes to our (still limited) knowledge of the string figure tradition of the cultural groups collectively known as Caribou Inuit.

This paper will examine the history of this technique which is one of man’s oldest art forms, related to string figures (cat’s cradles) and more distantly to motifs such as the labyrinth. As with most ancient designs, it carries a deeper meaning which must be teased from the many and varied examples that have survived. The underlying idea has been termed the sutratman or “thread-spirit” doctrine in which the line symbolizes the life force that animates all living beings and which is eternal and renascent. Like Proteus, the shape-shifter, the line can assume any form until, in the end, it returns to its source. Birth, death, rebirth and the continuity of the social order were all illustrated using the continuous line.

This chapter discusses the occurrence of string games in Australia, and traces the history of string figures from first century Greece, through 19th century Aboriginal cultures and into 21st century Australian playgrounds. Along the way, attitudes and adaptations to the game, ethnographic and folklore research and the skills involved in making string figures are explored. Currently regarded as a children's pastime, the game has a rich history showing connections between people, place and time, and has the potential to be of interest and value to researchers and practitioners working in several disciplines.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2019. The Rongorongo Script: Ten Papers. Krasnodar: The Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures.

CONTENTS

The Gods Tangaroa and Rongo as the Forefathers of the Hanau Momoko (the Tu'u Tribal Union), Easter Island

Halley's Comet Watched on Easter Island in 1682 A.D.: The Vital Sources of Information

Four Rongorongo Records were Traced in Rome

Two Rongorongo Records were Traced in Vienna

The Total Solar Eclipse on Easter Island in 1773 A.D.

The Rongorongo Inscriptions in Manuscript E Tell of King Hotu-Matua: The Urgent Report

The Rongorongo Inscriptions in Manuscript E Tell of King Hotu-Matua: The Additional Notes

The Rapanui Manuscript E Reveals Secrets: Some Farther Remarks

The Rapanui Manuscript E Reveals Secrets:The Real Bilingual Key to the Rongorongo has been Found

The Lost Talet Copied in Manuscript E Tells of the History of Easter Island


Keywords: writing, rongorongo, script, hieroglyphic script, Manuscript E, folklore, rock art, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Easter Island, Polynesia, string figure, petroglyph, archaeoastronomy, mythology

In this paper, we hone in on the final moments of the course which included an arts-based workshop as part of a focus on affect theory and feminist crafti- vism. At the onset of the course, students had been asked to bring meaning- ful ‘affective-material’ objects relating to gender to share with the class. Onthe last day, these shared objects were ‘storied’ and then ‘threaded’ to one another through a collective string figuration created with multi-coloured yarn. In this process, students found and charted group-generated connec- tions (e.g. themes, intensities, dissonances) between their objects by making string figures first on their group tables and then ‘shipping’ yarn across the entire classroom enabling the students to materially and affectively engage with difference and tensions, using Haraway’s words, ‘staying with trouble.’ We see this as a posthuman pedagogy that worked, rather than worked through or resolved, tension as an agentic and material co-presence in the classroom. Opposed to a humanist progress narrative that views tension as something to be overcome or eradicated, we see tension as an activating force that here intra-acted with the human and non-human bodies opening spaces
5
for maneuvering within difference. Haraway argues that staying with the
trouble entails finding ‘oddkin,’ or nurturing unlikely kinships between 6
bodies, critters, materialities, things, and ideas. The yarn workshop entangled human and non-human, material and immaterial bodies in pre- cisely such unlikely relationalities – an affirmative process we call kinshipping.

In this article I describe ‘Plymouth Labyrinth’ (2018-19), a multi-faceted collaborative art-making project, organised by ‘Crab & Bee’ (Helen Billinghurst and myself), in which we tested an ‘Arachnean’ practice, informed by concepts proposed by the radical educator and film maker Fernand Deligny, as our means to address certain constricted place stories under conditions of climate crisis.

In the present article the authors describe eleven string figures and tricks from the Faroe Islands, which were collected on the islands in the summer of 2009 and in early 2010. Four of them appear to be original, not found elsewhere in the world, and two of them have not been described before. A short comparison with known string figure literature follows each figure.

On appelle jeux de ficelle, les jeux où l'on utilise une corde, cordelette d'environ 1m ou 2m et avec laquelle on élabore des figures. Comme le souligne José Braunstein 1 c'est un art qui « relève probablement du patrimoine culturel commun à l'humanité ». Effectivement, on retrouve un peu partout ces jeux, que ce soient dans des fonctions ludiques, rituelles,…C'est souvent une pratique que l'on fait seul, ou parfois à 2. Une fois la ficelle unique nouée, on utilise nos mains principalement, mais parfois aussi nos coudes, nos dents, pour réaliser les figures. C'est une « technique du corps ».

Popova, T., 2018. The Rapanui String Figure "Amo Moenga Roa": On a Teacher's Rongorongo "Stone Book". Polynesia Newsletter, 14, pp. 2-6.


Keywords:  writing, rongorongo, folklore, string figure, string game, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Easter Island, Polynesia

String figures from the 1965/66 film Wame: Traditional String Figures from Saibai Island, Torres Strait were transcribed by Honor Maude and published in 1987. Wolfgang Laade made transcripts and translations of the chants and stories (in the Kalaw Kawaw Ya language) accompanying the figures, but they were never published. The first part of the present paper presents these chants and stories together with the construction method, display and action of the string figures. Comparative notes accompany each figure. In addition, the construction methods of two additional figures and some construction parts, not published in 1987, are given. The film also contains a section in which several Kalaw Kawaw Ya technical terms used in string figure construction are demonstrated. The second part of the present paper presents and studies these technical terms.

This article describes my discoveries as a Hawaiian researcher with hei (string figures) as the media of recovery. String and string figures have helped me connect back to my ancestors and their ways of knowing and doing and have reminded me of the importance of kuleana (responsibility) and ha'aha'a (humility), some of the values that have sustained my people with health and wholeness for generations. By connecting to the mo'okü'auhau (genealogy), mo'olelo (stories), and mele (chants) of my küpuna (ancestors), I have been able to align my Indigenous research methodology with a more Hawaiian way of conducting research.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 1998. String Figures in Mitanni? Bulletin of the International String Figure Association, 5, p. 291.

Abstract. In this article I examine a depiction from the ancient state Mitanni. One can suppose that there certain string figures were well known.

The practice of making string figures, often called cat's cradle, can be found all over the world and is particularly widespread in Melanesia. It has been studied by anthropologists, linguists and mathematicians. For the latter, the ordered series of moves and the resultant string figures represent cognitive processes that form part of a practice of recreational mathematics. Modern anthropology is interested in the social and cultural aspects of string figures, including their associations with other cultural practices, with the local mythology and songs. Despite this clear link to language, few linguists have studied string figures, and those who have, have mainly focused on the songs and formulaic texts that accompany them. Based on a systematic study of string figures among the Awiakay, the inhabitants of Kanjimei village in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea, with six hours of transcribed video recordings of the practice, this paper argues that studying string figure-making can be an important aspect of language documentation-not just through the recording and analysis of the accompanying oral literature, but also as a tool for documenting other speech genres through recordings of the naturalistic speech that surrounds string figure-making performances. In turn, analysing the language associated with string figure-making offers valuable insights into the meaning of string figures as understood by their makers.

The author describes two instances of the use of string figures in traditional Swedish folk medicine. A krampknut (“cramp-knot”), made out of a string loop, was applied to cure cramped limbs of humans or small animals. A construction
method for this krampknut has survived, but curiously this does not exactly match the preserved specimens of the knot. Another string figure is used in a ritual performed by a specialist healer from Fru Alstad, southern Sweden.

This paper presents twelve string figures or series of figures, nine tricks, three knots used in folk medicine, one display of skill and one game for children; all are performed with a string loop or a length of string. They were found in publications in the Hungarian language that appeared in the period between 1904 and 2016. Two further examples of the two-player take over game are presented in appendices. The Hungarian string figure corpus clearly fits in the European tradition. Three string figures have probably not been described elsewhere; two of them are closely related to traditional weaving techniques. Some transitions in the two-player take over game were probably not seen before. Some Hungarian string tricks and knots are used in traditional folk medicine.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 1997. Rongorongo Versus Kai-kai: A Second Look at Themes Linking Easter Island’s Mysterious Script with Its String Figure Repertoire. Bulletin of the International String Figure Association, 4, pp. 30-55.

Abstract. Here I present a number of Rapanui string figures which correspond to the famous rongorongo glyphs. Moreover, I study the string figures of the Hawaiian, Marquesan, Tahitian and Maori repertoires and the similar rongorongo signs. At one time, the rongorongo writing system may have been known throughout Polynesia.

Twelve different string figures/series and tricks from Estonia are presented. The collection is based on material from the Estonian Folklore Archives (manuscripts that are part of a 1930s game collecting competition and video recordings), on information obtained through the internet, and on material collected by the author himself. There is a considerable amount of variation in string figure making. The most common string game is the two-player game that is known in English as Cat's Cradle, a further common figure is the action figure mimicking the movements of a saw. One short two-player series, a variant of the worldwide known Cat's Cradle game, has probably not been recorded before, which holds also for some variations in the Cat's Cradle game. Juulius Jakobson's 1935 drawing of Stage 6 noot ("trawlnet") of Estonia 01 From a manuscript in the Estonian Folklore Archives

In 1974 German ethnographer Christian Adler made a short film in which three Inughuit hunters from Keqertat in Northwest Greenland make string figures. The film shows 23 different string figures and tricks. The present paper presents transcriptions of the construction of these figures, along with a short introduction and comparative notes. Only two of the figures have not been encountered among the Inuit before. The construction of several of the figures shows small peculiarities. In 1862 or 1863 a small group of immigrants from Canadian Baffin Island arrived in the region. It is likely that they influenced the local string figure tradition, but the collection of string figures presented here shows only a few traces of such an influence.

In the summer of 2012 Benidiktus Delpada filmed the construction of eight elastic band figures and series of figures in Tangfan-Takalelang village on Alor Island, Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia. The construction of these figures is described.

Rjabchikov, S.V., 1996. It’s a Small World after All. Bulletin of the International String Figure Association, 3, p. 171.

The author discusses the parallels disclosed in the Oceanic, Eskimo and North American string figure repertoires. The Ainu-Oceanic relationship is also examined.

In the 1970s Jules Camps OFM made two films on string figures while working as a missionary in the New Guinean highlands. One stems from the Grand Valley of the Balim river, the other from the Ilaga valley. Here transcriptions and reconstructions of twenty-one of the twenty-two different string figures in the films are presented, along with a short introduction and comparative notes.
They are the first published construction methods for figures from West New Guinea. Six of the figures were hitherto unknown.
In an Appendix, construction methods of two other string figures from the New Guinean highlands are presented. German researcher Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt filmed them among the Eipo in 1979.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2001. Polynesian String Figures Help Decipher Fijian Petroglyphs. Bulletin of the International String Figure Association, 8, pp. 39-45.

Abstract. In this article I examine Fijian and Polynesian string figures and compare them to Polynesian art. Some Fijian petroglyphs correspond to Rapanui rongorongo glyphs.

In 1960 German ethnologist Hans Fischer published a fairly large collection of string figures which he collected in the Lower Watut and Banir River area of eastern Papua New Guinea. For most figures in the collection no construction methods were recorded, but twelve figures and one series of figures have instructions, usually in German, and sometimes also in the Watut language. Fischer further collected information on Watut terminology used to describe the construction of string figures. Due to the mixing of string figures with and string figures without instructions, and due to the use of the German language, the collection has undeservedly been neglected in string figure studies. Therefore in the current paper all Watut string figures from the 1960 collection that have instructions are presented. An interpretation of the original German and Watut instructions is given. Each figure is then followed by comparative remarks. A provisional analysis of Watut string figure terminology, based on Fischer’s material, concludes the paper.
One of the figures (boromak) has only been found among the Watut and the neighboring Wampar.

In November 1934 German ethnologist Emil Heinrich Snethlage filmed the construction of three string figures among the Moré, living on the Bolivian border of Rio Guaporé. The figures are presented here, accompanied by comparative remarks and information on their context.

In December 1970 Bo Almqvist and his students carried out a research project on string figures among children of two primary schools in Uppsala, Sweden. The resulting information on string figures, names and context, was stored away in the archives of Institutet för språk och folkminnen in Uppsala and never used. Here it is arranged and described for the first time. No construction methods for the figures were recorded, but it has been possible to reconstruct many of them. Additional material on string figures found in the Uppsala archives is described in appendices.

The author provides a transcription of a video made by artist Tamara Rigishvili of Tbilisi, Georgia, showing how "Cat's Cradle" (the two-player take over game) is played in her country. Attention is drawn to three less common transitions (Stage 6 to 4, Stage 5 to 4, and Stage 5 to 2).

In 1908 Nils Keyland recorded seven string tricks in Stockholm, probably from a local bookkeeper. They are presented here. Each trick is compared with related tricks from Scandinavia. Most of the tricks are found in other parts of Sweden and Scandinavia; only one of them has probably not been recorded before. The paper uses material from Nordiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden.

This article explores a series of tentacular troublings inspired by Donna Haraway’s (2016) concept of String Figuring (SF). We consider these troublings as relational entanglements which produce perturbations of our gender, positioning, recognition, and respectability as feminist academics in Higher Education. We activate tentacular troublings as a refrain for contemplating differences/ings in our academic lives and as a critique of contemporary neo-liberal academia which ossifies, fixes, and freezes feminist flows. The article makes two contributions. The first is to deploy string figuring as a proposition for feminist thinking which troubles the notion of fixed positions in favour of position(ings)-plural in motion. The second is to enact string figuring as a mode of ecriture feminine (Cixous, 1976) in which connections are made, dropped, and picked up in tentacular relays and patterns of entangled encounters, thereby perturbing normative modes of writing and troubling traditional...

The paper presents and connects three independent accounts of what is basically the same phenomenon: a group of marriageable youngsters in two long lines exchanges string figures as part of the events following the death of an important man. The phenomenon was observed in the central highland of Bird's Head Peninsula, West Papua, from the 1950s to the 1970s; it is likely that it has disappeared in the 1990s.

This paper presents two different string games that are known in Catalonia, along with a description of their context. Comparative remarks accompany each game. The paper is based on previously published information on Catalan string games, information found on the internet, and field recordings made by the author in 2019. The term “string games” is used here instead of the more generally used term “string figures”, because in Catalonia the focus is not so much on the actual figures that are being made as on the playful interaction between the players in the game. The Catalan string game corpus consists of one two-player take-over series and one action figure mimicking a saw, but variations do occur. Both are also found in other parts of Europe and the world, although some details are not. The use of the string with which the pastry eaten on festive days is packed is a particular custom in some parts of Catalonia.
String games from Basque Country and from the area around Madrid are presented in appendices, as is an interpretation of a recording of La Scie, a saw-like string figure from France, originally published in 1860 (or 1856).

In 1981 Tupou Pulu and Mark Hiratsuka, of the Alaska Bilingual/Multicultural Materials Development Center, recorded the string figure making of Gregory “Kokwak” Kapatak and Anna “Grandma” Backford. This resulted in some two hours of film footage. The current paper presents all 31 string figures and series that Gregory Kapatak made during the recording sessions. Small construction variants that occur in the footage are studied. Two figures in the collection have probably not been published before, and four further figures show hitherto unknown peculiarities. The number and the nature of the variants in the construction of figures is small; structural characteristics determine the choice of a particular variant, though not exclusively.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2018. Ob odnoy rapanuyskoy verevochnoy figure (About One Rapanui String Figure; in Russian). Polynesia Newsletter, 15, p. 6-12.

Keywords:  writing, rongorongo, folklore, rock art, string figure, string game, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Easter Island, Polynesia, Proto-Polynesian, PPN

This paper presents 31 different string figures/tricks as made by Carley Foster from Eek, Southwest Alaska, in 2001. They were recorded on video tape by David Titus. One figure and one continuation of a figure have probably not been recorded before. An analysis of the variation in Thumb Loop Drop techniques indicates that structural characteristics of the string figure configuration prior to the application of the Thumb Loop Drop tend to favor the choice of a particular technique. This is consistent with results from studies of other Alaskan string figure makers. Hardly ever does Carley Foster vary in the choice of a Thumb Loop Drop technique between different makings of the same figure.

Five independent French sources describe a 19 th century two-player string figure called La Scie ("The Saw") or La Scie en Long ("The Pitsaw"). The figure also lends its name to the two-player take over game (called Cat's Cradle in the English-speaking world). The present paper presents the information found in the French sources, along with comparative notes and contextual information.

This paper presents an interpretation of the two-player take over game, in the English-speaking world often referred to as "Cat's Cradle". The game was recorded around 1970 by French ethnologist Yves Delaporte among the Saami of the Kautokeino area in the north of Norway. The presentation is accompanied by short comparative notes. The concept of Stages is introduced to describe the structure of the game. Three transitions between Stages have probably not been recorded in other parts of the world before.

The paper presents eight different traditional string figures and tricks from
Kuopio, South-Central Finland, accompanied by comparative notes. The
figures were collected in 2011 by Finnish folklorist Ulla Lipponen. Although
the collction is relatively small, it is important. One figure, Helpot Verhot, has
(as far as is known) not been published before; two further figures were each
known from a single other recording. The figures and their names are closely
related to other traditional European string figures, suggesting the existence of
a distinct European string figure tradition. In an Appendix two further
recordings of string figure making, from Finnish videos on Youtube, are
presented.