CHILDREN’S GROUP GAME: MODIFICATION OF TAG
“Pets”

Informants:
Myself
Brandon, MS
2006

Informant Data:
Cathryn Brown was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on September 3, 2000. She attended kindergarten through high school in the same school system and spent much of her childhood with other girls of her age. Her background is somewhat Creole, as well as generally southern. Her family origins are European and Native American, with most background from France. She is non-religious, but the area she grew up in is very religious, predominantly Christian. She is single and a sophomore at Dartmouth College.

Contextual Data:
Social Context: Cathryn originally learned to play this game at recess in her first-grade class and continued to play it throughout elementary. The game had to be played with many participants, so usually multiple classes (made up of around 25 people) would play together. The game was somewhat a show of status. The more “pets” a player had, the more people generally admired them. Even when not actively playing the game, “pets” tended to spend their recess near the person who tagged them.
Cultural Context: Playing the game was a way of displaying loyalty and establishing a pecking order within the group. Players would often allow themselves to be tagged by the player they whose group of “pets” they wanted to join. After the game ended, they would typically remain near the player, thereby being a display of loyalty. The players with large groups of “pets” were seen as well-liked, thereby establishing a pecking order where the most popular players were at the top.

Item:
This game is played with many people. The players are divided into two groups: the people doing the tagging and the people being tagged. The people doing the tagging are referred to as the players, because they are the most active participants. When the game begins, all of the children run around to try to avoid being “pet,” or tagged, by one of the players. In the beginning of the game, children generally try to avoid being tagged. However, near the end, children start to get closer to the person they want to be tagged by. When tagged, the player yells out “Pet!” as they tag the person running around. The person then becomes a pet of the player that tagged them and follows them around for the rest of the game. By the end, there should be a player with the most pets. Generally this is the most popular player, but sometimes it is the fastest player. Sometimes this is one and the same. The game is often played multiple times, due to pets being unhappy with the person who tagged them. When the game is repeated multiple times, the final few rounds generally have the runners go straight to the players they want to tag them, so they can be the pet of the person they like best.

Cathryn Brown, 20
210 Evergreen Drive, Brandon MS
Dartmouth College, Hanover NH
Dartmouth College
Russ 13
20F