#StringFigureFacts #4
The science of string figures was largely pioneered by women.
Shortly before her untimely death at age 36, Caroline Furness Jayne (pictured below), of a family of scientists, published the amazing treatise String Figures: A Study of Cat's Cradle in Many Lands (1906).
#StringFigureFacts #3. String figures across cultures aren’t ”just” child’s play.
Some cultures even have taboos against children making them!
They are important cognitive tools for storytelling and religious purposes.
Nauru even had the equivalent of an all-island ”string figure Olympics”.
#StringFigureFacts #2 (yes, this is a series):
All string figures are topologically equivalent to the simplest of all mathematical knots, the unknot (or trivial knot). In lay terms, you'd call it a loop. All string figures start with an open loop and so can *always* be unknotted into an open loop.
#StringFigureFacts #1:
The first known literary reference to a string figure comes from Japan, from a haiku in ’Komachi Odori’ (1665):
Kazenoteno
Itodoritonaru
Yanagikana
The haiku evokes an image of a willow tree weaving a string figure (itotori, later "ayatori") in the wind. 🍃
