Playing with Haddon's String Figures

Bibliographic Data

ID5779154
AuthorsDinah Eastop (Dinah Eastop is Senior Lecturer at the Textile Conservation Centre, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, and Associate Director of the AHRC Research Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies., corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume5
Issue2
Pages190-205
Publication date2007-07-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTEXTILE (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1475-9756 • E-ISSN: 1751-8350
PublisherBerg Publishers (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2752/175183507x219461
OpenAlexW2040739792
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited16

The transformative properties of string are considered via an analysis of string figures, also known as cat's cradles, which are loops of string manipulated to form three-dimensional patterns in sequence. This article looks at the string figures which form part of the collection made by A.C. Haddon in 1888, of everyday objects used by Torres Strait islanders. He promoted the documentation of string figures as a means of ethnographic enquiry, notably via the 1902 publication A method for recording string figures and tricks, co-authored with W.H. Rivers. The article considers how representation of Haddon's string figures and the significance attributed to them have changed. Haddon's string figures are analyzed in their various forms and contexts: as objects acquired by the British Museum in 1889, as published representations of the string figures, and as performance. How meaning is gained during the performance of string figures is understood here as due to the transformative properties of string as a medium.Keywords: string figurecat's cradleA.C. HaddonK. Haddonperformancetransformationembodied knowledgeCambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait

Data Analysis and Archiving · Law in Society and Culture · Multidisciplinary Warburg-centric Studies

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