Monthly Archives: May 2019

Fingerhakeln

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Title: Fingerhakeln

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Germany
  • Informant: Nicolay Ostrau
  • Date Collected: May 28, 2019

Informant Data:

  • Nicolay Ostrau is a Professor and Senior Lecturer in Dartmouth’s department of German studies. His home region is Northern Germany. He heard of this drinking game through his many experiences with German culture, although he never partook in the game itself.

Contextual Data:

  • During Oktoberfest, Germans have large, social parties where they drink a lot of beer and have fun with friends and family. During the festivities, they often play games, such as the one described here by the informant.

Item:

  • “We have the Oktoberfest culture of course where there are many games being played in the in the beer tents that… Don’t necessarily depend on alcohol, but I think they go together with alcohol. I think people engage more once they have had two or three beers and one is Fingerhalten. You’re you’re familiar with arm wrestling, right? So Fingerhalten is similar, so you take your [pinky] fingers and link them together and you try to pull your opponent across the table with your finger. Which of course you can imagine leads to dislocated fingers. Sometimes it leads to broken fingers but this is really a so-called drinking game that we had for a long time. And this is mainly played in Bavaria which goes with beer drinking culture that was there.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • This was quite the interesting story. I don’t quite get the appeal of ripping one another’s fingers out of their sockets, but I do kind of understand the appeal of having a macho-type tug of war with someone. Perhaps the popularity of this game is due to the satisfaction one gains from being stronger than the opponent/better able to pull them across the table.

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game. Oktoberfest. Germans

Boßeln

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Title: Boßeln (Bosseln)

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Germany
  • Informant: Nicolay Ostrau
  • Date Collected: May 28, 2019

 

Informant Data:

  • Nicolay Ostrau is a Professor and Senior Lecturer in Dartmouth’s department of German studies. His home region is Northern Germany. He heard of this drinking game through his many experiences with German culture, although he never partook in the game itself.

Contextual Data:

  • The game has a large social component to it. As the informant mentions, it is often the entire village that plays the game. Because Germany allows drinking at the age of 16, typical games such as those found on American college campuses seem to be less prevalent, whereas older, traditional games that can be played by elders seem to be more common.

Item:

  • “I’ve never taken part in it myself or even seen it played, but I know that it exists…
    I think the most interesting [drinking game] culture wise is… It’s a pastime. I don’t know whether to call it a sport… It kind of is a sport. It’s called Boßeln.  And the best way to describe it and to translate it would be that it’s a form of cross country bowling. It’s really strange.
    It’s coming from my home region northern Germany. Because you can imagine Northern Germany is really flat. And, it is usually played by older people or by entire villages – small northern German villages. You take a bowling type ball, you get together with a bunch of friends or with your family… You start in the village center and you start rolling this ball down the street. You have two teams and the attempt is of course to roll that ball as far and as quickly as possible. Who ever rolls the ball the fastest and arrives at a given destination that has been agreed on beforehand wins the game. Also I think you get points for the times that you have to roll. So it’s like it’s like miniature golf. The fewer times you have the roll that ball the more points you get.Why is it a drinking game? Because traditionally you take along a handcart you walk with and this handcart is filled with liquor. So every time every time you roll that ball you ought to drink a shot. You can imagine as the game progresses, things get heated and then more and more funny. Then at the end everybody ends up at a “Gaststätte” (at a pub) and then people traditionally eat that famous northern German dish…They eat cooked kale with a fat sausage, which then soaks up all the alcohol to that you have had before.
    So that is, I think, the most interesting one.”

Informant Comments:

  • “This is interesting because it is also really rooted in tradition. This is local northern German families and villages that get together… I don’t know when it was invented maybe in the 19th century I couldn’t tell how long this has been around, but it is very traditional.
    It’s that village culture and it’s also… I mean the aim of the game is to, number one to stay warm in winter. The more liquor you drink, the warmer you stay. And that’s of course the reason to do it in winter because you have an excuse for drinking a lot outside. And it’s really bringing the community together. Right, it’s the entire village that plays together, that has fun together, and then also you always go sit down in a pub and you eat a traditional northern German dish together.
    So it’s connected to food. I think it builds community. And then also, you’re consuming a local drink. That is, Korn which is a corn liquor that’s especially popular in northern Germany. So in that respect also, it’s really rooted in tradition and specific to that to that region. And then also it takes advantage of the landscape…You would have a much harder time playing cross country bowling in Bavaria in a village that’s located on a slope. Either you would be running after the ball or the ball would roll back and it wouldn’t really come to a standstill anywhere.
    So in that respect that it’s rooted in the landscape and the food and also the village community.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • I found this game quite interesting because as the informant mentioned, it is usually played by older people (or entire villages). The fact that Germany has a low drinking age seems to have made drinking more institutionalized than here in America, allowing such traditional games to take place. It doesn’t seem to have the “legitimization” aspect that many college drinking games seem to; Rather, it seems to be played simply to have a great time with friends and family, with no judgement – because drinking in Germany carries none of the stigma that drinking in America does.

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game. German.

Komasaufen

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Title: Komasaufen (Coma Boozing)

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Germany
  • Informant: Nicolay Ostrau
  • Date Collected: May 28, 2019

Informant Data:

  • Nicolay Ostrau is a Professor and Senior Lecturer in Dartmouth’s department of German studies. His home region is Northern Germany. He heard of this drinking game through his many experiences with German culture, although he never partook in the game itself.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • The informant said that this drinking game is one he’s never experienced, but knows happens in Germany. It seems to be something high-schoolers do to socialize, away from the eye of adults.
  • Cultural Context
    • In Germany, the legal age to drink is 16 years old. It’s generally assumed that because Germany introduced alcohol earlier, Germans are more responsible when it comes to alcohol. This story shows that isn’t always the case.

Item:

  • “So teenagers in Germany get together and their aim is to drink enough that somebody will turn or get close to turning unconscious… into a coma.
    So the winner so to speak is the person that falls into a coma.
    And and I don’t know how many people have died. Not that many but I think there have been cases where a teenager has died because they drank so much that the alcohol poisoning was so severe that they couldn’t be rushed to the hospital in the time.”

Informant Comments:

  • “I don’t know how we should interpret why this would make you a hero… passing out is not very heroic. I mean heroism is not normally considered to be passing out and to be so incapacitated that you’re not in control of your own bodily functions. “

Collector’s Comments:

  • I found this story quite interesting, as it is reminiscent of binge-drinking games common in America, with the one difference that in America, it is generally college students who get so heavily intoxicated, but in Germany, it is younger, high-school students who do so. Even though Germany has alcohol legalized at a much younger age than in America, you still find stories of young people drinking.

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.

Power Hour + Cornhole

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Title: Power Hour + Cornhole

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: May 26, 2019

Informant Data:

  • This anonymous informant from the Art History department learned these games while they were in their twenties. They would hang around with friends, playing games and drinking. The informant was born and raised in Southern California.

Contextual Data:

  • These games were played at backyard grills and cookouts. They didn’t necessarily develop in institutionalized fraternities, but rather seem to be played and passed down during casual social events of young adults.

Item:

  • Power Hour: “Find a good playlist and play each song for one minute. At each minute mark, change the song, then take shots of beer. Do this for a full hour.”
  • Cornhole: “Throw beanbags at a hole in a wooden stand. You get points every time you get the beanbag in the hole. Whoever gets the fewest points each round has to take a shot”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “Even a game such as cornhole can become a drinking game if you add stakes to it (loser takes shots, buys next time, etc).”
  • These games are “played for validation [of drinking habits], but also mostly for the social aspect – Drinking games are just one part of the ritual of being around friends with food and games, having a good time.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • It was interesting that the informant listed cornhole, which is not typically a drinking game, as one. It exemplifies this informant’s view that a drinking game is primarily a way to have a good time with friends, and only secondarily a method for getting intoxicated.
  • Power Hour also seems to be a non-standard drinking game. It doesn’t really have an element of competition – it seems to be more just about having a good time enjoying the music (and drinks) with your friends. Although, because Power Hour doesn’t have much of a competitive aspect, it could potentially fall into the category of games that exist as an excuse just to get drunk. I don’t necessarily think so though, because the emphasis really seemed to be on socializing, rather than the drinking aspect.

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.

Beer Pong 2

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Title: Beer Pong

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America (Texas)
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: May 14, 2019

 

Informant Data:

  • The anonymous informant was a visiting professor in the Dartmouth Math department. She was born in Mexico City and currently lives in Hanover, NH. She spent her undergraduate years at the University of Texas, Pan American, where she learned this drinking game.

Contextual Data:

  • The informant went to a relatively typical American college – with many students going out to parties on the weekends at fraternities. It was at one of the fraternity parties, during her Junior year of college and University of Texas, that the informant observed this game.

Item:

  • “So you have to set up some cups, right, on each side of the table, and then you have like a ping pong ball. And you just have to throw it [at the cups in front of the other person]. And if it falls into the cup, the person on the other side of the table has to drink it. And if it doesn’t [make it into a cup], then you have to drink on your side.”

Informant’s Comments:

    • “I mean, in my in my opinion it wasn’t so fun because unless you’re very good at aiming –  and then it’s fun because you see the other person getting drunk while you’re pretty awake right… [or else, you end up just drinking a lot]…. I think it’s a it’s a fair game though, rather than just drink for no reason, [it gives you a reason for drinking].“

Collector’s Comments:

  • This variant of pong is interesting, because unlike traditional pong where you only drink if your opponent gets their ball in your cup, in this variant, you also have to drink if you miss a cup. This seems to lead to an accelerated rate of drinking (and perhaps the reason our informant wasn’t a huge fan of this game).

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game. Beer Pong.

Slap Cup

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Title: Slap Cup

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America (Tennessee)
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: May 24, 2019

 

Informant Data:

  • The anonymous informant was a member of the Dartmouth Math department. They learned this drinking game during their time at Vanderbilt University.

Contextual Data:

  • The informant went to a relatively typical American college – with many students going out on the weekends to fraternities to party and drink. It was at one of the fraternities, at Vanderbilt University, that the informant observed this game.

Item:

  • “Slap Cup is a game where you put a bunch of drinks in the center, with small amounts of alcohol in each cup. There’s two cups… you take two balls. When the cup is in front of you, bounce it into it. If the person next to you gets their ball in first, they slap your cup away, and you have to drink from one of the center cups. The game is very fast paced.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • This games is about, “Drinking a lot… there’s lots of beer drunk over a short amount of time. It’s a short game, with lots of drinking that makes it more intense.”
  • It’s “Fun. Very sticky. Has lots of sub rules.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • This game seems to fall more into the category of “drinking a lot.” That said, it does seem to be one of the more competitive games, which gives it its appeal.

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.

Men’s Rugby Pre-Game Rituals

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Men’s Rugby (Sumner Erbe)

Title: Men’s Rugby Pre-Game

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Video interview
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Struan Coleman
  • Date Collected: May 20, 2019

Informant Data: Struan Coleman is the class of 2019 at Dartmouth College. He is the current captain of the Men’s Rugby Team. While he is fully committed to the sport in college, Struan had never played rugby before arriving at Dartmouth. He is now about to complete his fourth year on the team in a leadership role and is very close to the players, coaches, and staff around the club.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Dartmouth Men’s Rugby is a club sport, meaning that they function independently of the grip of the Athletic Department. The team is touted as one of the strongest at the College – they recently won a DIAA national championship. The club’s culture and long history is also renown throughout campus.
  • Social Context: In rugby, the team culture is essential. Because the sport is so violent and fast-paced, team members must be on the same page and executing the same game plan to succeed. With this, the team bond is strong, especially before a home game. The team warms up together, dresses for the game together, and takes the field together.

Item: Struan described a pregame ritual before Dartmouth home games. After each player is dressed before the game, the team leaves the locker room in a line. Each member of the team puts his hand on, or slaps, a sign that says “for the ones who went before you,” as he walks onto the field.

Athlete’s Photo:

Transcript: Struan described the ritual from start to finish. Before going out onto the field, the team listens to Reggae music together. Each player undergoes their own individual preparation during this time, such as putting on the team uniform in a particular way or taping different parts of his body for support. Once everyone is individually prepared, the team lines up, and performs the ritual. Once they are out on the field, they are together as a team and ready to play the game ahead.

Informant’s Comments: Struan described how the meaning behind the saying “for the ones who went before you” connects players to eh legacy of the club. The club having a long and rich history of rugby success, players take pride in the history that the team is now contributing. While the ritual may have changed slightly over time,  Struan believes that the ritual does help the team perform. The sense of togetherness and belonging to the club that the sign delivers allows the team to function as a more cohesive unit – a variable essential for success in rugby.

Collector’s Comments: This ritual was obviously important to Struan, and the history of the ruby club. I do believe that the sense of belonging and togetherness that Struan described is essential for the success of the club. Utilizing a history of past success to encourage future success is a useful tool that the club utilizes through this ritual.

Collector’s Name: Sumner Erbe

Tags/Keywords:

  • Rugby
  • Tradition
  • Pregam Rituals
  • Signs