Provides directions, illustrated with photographs, for making many different string figures-- from the fairly simple Jacob's Ladder to more complex Mt. Fuji-- along with information about their history and meaning.

Rooted in tribal customs and cultural traditions from around the world, making string figures is an ancient pastime that continues to charm people of all ages. This compilation of projects from String Figure Magazine presents easy-to-follow photographs and simple, step-by-step directions for creating more than two dozen captivating string figures that can jump, flip, and perform other tricks. In addition to basic instructions on how to get started, this guide features brief accounts of each figure's historical background. They include "Kidnapped Baby" and "Broken Home, Mended Home" from Hawaii, "A Flock of Birds" and "Old Man Chewing" from the Solomon Islands, and the Australian "Setting Sun." From the Congo come "Leopard's Mouth," "Rubber Band" from Tibet, and from India, "Scissors." Other figures spotlight the traditions of North America's Navajo and Kwakiutl peoples and natives of Brazil, Guyana, and Argentina. A great travel pastime and on-the-go activity, making string figures is a delightful, inexpensive, and easily acquired hobby.

Centred on the metaphor of bridges and knots, this volume investigates the dialogic and dialectical relationships between socially dissimilar and topographically distant cultures. The contributions here explore various methodological frameworks for discourses and theories that purport to conceptualize cultural spaces, which – as opposed to objective, geographical areas – are characterized by the propensity to bind topographical distances by means of symbolic ties and perimeters. The chapters address possible juxtapositions and intersections of spatial and temporal dimensions of cultural practice, religious and ethical “ties and knots” between lands and cultures, disconnections between historical, literary and cultural epochs, discourses of cultural entanglement and cultural ensnarement on individual and social levels, and the possibilities of raising aesthetic bridges between various cultures in music, poetry and visual arts, among other topics.

Offering a wealth of art-based practices, this volume invites readers to reimagine the joyful possibility and power of language and culture in language and literacy learning. Understanding art as a tool that can be used for decolonizing minds, the contributors explore new methods and strategies for supporting the language and literacy learning skills of multilingual students. Contributors are artists, educators, and researchers who bring together cutting-edge theory and practice to present a broad range of traditional and innovative art forms and media that spotlight the roles of artful resistance and multilingual activism. Featuring questions for reflection and curricular applications, chapters address theoretical issues and pedagogical strategies related to arts and language learning, including narrative inquiry, journaling, social media, oral storytelling, and advocacy projects. The innovative methods and strategies in this book demonstrate how arts-based, decolonizing practices are essential in fostering inclusive educational environments and supporting multilingual students’ cultural and linguistic repertoires. Transformative and engaging, this text is a key resource for educators, scholars, and researchers in literacy and language education.

A guide for game preview and rules: history, definitions, classification, theory, video game consoles, cheating, links, etc. While many different subdivisions have been proposed, anthropologists classify games under three major headings, and have drawn some conclusions as to the social bases that each sort of game requires. They divide games broadly into, games of pure skill, such as hopscotch and target shooting; games of pure strategy, such as checkers, go, or tic-tac-toe; and games of chance, such as craps and snakes and ladders. A guide for game preview and rules: history, definitions, classification, theory, video game consoles, cheating, links, etc.

The book presents a series of ethnographic studies, which illustrate issues of wider importance, such as the role of cultural traditions, concepts and learning procedures in the development of formal (or mathematical) thinking outside of the western tradition. It focuses on research at the crossroads of anthropology and ethnomathematics to document indigenous mathematical knowledge and its inclusion in specific cultural patterns. More generally, the book demonstrates the heuristic value of crossing ethnographical, anthropological and ethnomathematical approaches to highlight and analyze—or "formalize" with a pedagogical outlook—indigenous mathematical knowledge. The book is divided into three parts. The first part extensively analyzes theoretical claims using particular ethnographic data, while revealing the structural mathematical features of different ludic, graphic, or technical/procedural practices in their links to other cultural phenomena. In the second part, new empirical studies that add data and perspectives from the body of studies on indigenous knowledge systems to the ongoing discussions in mathematics education in and for diverse cultural traditions are presented. This part considers, on the one hand, the Brazilian work in this field; on the other hand, it brings ethnographic innovation from other parts of the world. The third part comprises a broad philosophical discussion of the impact of intuitive or "ontological" premises on mathematical thinking and education in the light of recent developments within so-called indigenously inspired thinking. Finally, the editors’ conclusions aim to invite the broad and diversified field of scholars in this domain of research to seek alternative approaches for understanding mathematical reasoning and the adjacent adequate educational goals and means. This book is of interest to scholars and students in anthropology, ethnomathematics, history and philosophy of science, mathematics, and mathematics education, as well as other individuals interested in these topics.

Two works in one. this is an exquisite art book offering the first comprehensive treatment of Vicuna's work in English.

Collects instructions drawn from the pages of String Figure Magazine explaining how to create such string "sculptures" as "Twinkling star," "Polar Bear," "Erupting volcano," and "Andromeda galaxy"