This book addresses the mathematical rationality contained in the making of string figures. It does so by using interdisciplinary methods borrowed from anthropology, mathematics, history and philosophy of mathematics. The practice of string figure-making has long been carried out in many societies, and particularly in those of oral tradition. It consists in applying a succession of operations to a string (knotted into a loop), mostly using the fingers and sometimes the feet, the wrists or the mouth. This succession of operations is intended to generate a final figure. The book explores different modes of conceptualization of the practice of string figure-making and analyses various source material through these conceptual tools: it looks at research by mathematicians, as well as ethnographical publications, and personal fieldwork findings in the Chaco, Paraguay, and in the Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea, which all give evidence of the rationality that underlies this activity. It concludes that the creation of string figures may be seen as the result of intellectual processes, involving the elaboration of algorithms, and concepts such as operation, sub-procedure, iteration, and transformation.

Contains instructions for making and information about string figures of Nauru Island. Is a "definitive work on Nauruan ekadawa as well as commentary on Nauru's history and society."

Of the games people play, string figures afford nearly universal amusement, appearing in more cultures than any other. But although over 2,000 individual patterns have been recorded world-wide since 1888, when anthropologist Franz Boas first described a pair of Eskimo "cat's cradles," very few studies have explored North American Indian string figures. This intriguing volume publishes for the first time 102 string figures and 10 string tricks collected among the Kwakiutl Indians by Julia Averkieva, a young visiting Soviet scholar who accompanied Boas on his 1930 expedition to Vancouver Island. When she returned to Leningrad, Averkieva left her unpublished monograph with Boas, whose heirs eventually sent it to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Averkieva's study represents the most comprehensive Native American string collection ever assembled from a single tribe. In addition to characterizing the social conditions that prompted string figure making among the Kwakiutl during the time of her field study, Averkieva noted step-by-step instructions for each figure and transcribed traditional accompanying chants. In editing and expanding Averkieva's manuscript, Mark Sherman addresses string figure enthusiasts as well as cultural anthropologists. Sherman includes in his introduction a complete description of basic openings and string figure moves. For each Kwakiutl figure he has prepared clear illustrations based on Averkieva's original photographs and pencil sketches. In addition he has tested each figure for workability, clarifying instructions where necessary and recasting them in Rivers and Haddon's standard terminology. Sherman's analysis of figure titles suggests that many aspects of Kwakiutl material culture and belief are preserved in string. In examining the ethnological value of the collection, he discusses the implications of observed similarities between Eskimo and Kwakiutl string figures. He also updates Averkieva's preliminary distribution data, interspersing the figure descriptions with references to related and identical figures from other cultures. Each analysis is keyed to an illustrated cross index. Kwakiutl String Figures will interest students of comparative cultures and will delight all who have time (and string) on their hands.