Category Archives: Games

Concentration – American Children Hand Game

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Title: Concentration

General Information About Item:

  • Customary Lore, Children Hand Games
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informants: Kaitlyn Kelley and Irene Lam
  • Date Collected: May 9, 2019

Informant Data:

Kaitlyn Kelley has lived in Lakeland, Florida for the majority of her life. She had attended Lakeland Christian School from Kindergarten up until the second grade. Then, she was homeschools during fourth and fifth grade, having skipped third grade altogether. Currently, she studies biological chemical and global health at Dartmouth College.

Irene Lam is of Chinese-American descent. She has lived in Brooklyn, New York for the majority of her life. As a young child, she attend P.S.230 Doris L. Cohen Elementary School in Brooklyn. Currently, she studies computer science and Chinese at Dartmouth College.

Rules:

At the start of the game, the performers will agree on a category of their choosing. These categories may range from fruits, to brand names, and even destinations across the world. The performers will then clap and say the verbal aspect of the game – provided in the next section of this example. Performers cannot repeat items that already have been said in this round of the game. They may also not say anything that does not fit within the category. In addition, the performers must respond within the given time and cannot pause too long to think about a response. The first to violate the rule(s) will have lost the game.

Text:

During the time that performer’s are clapping the other performer’s hands, they will say the following:

Concentration

– break –

Sixty-four

– break –

no-repeats

– break –

or hesitation

– break –

you go first (choose one of the performer’s to go first)

– break –

and I go second

– break –

starting with

– break –

(choose a category that you want to play with)

Some variations may have “category is” rather than “starting with.” Also note that this game is in English, thus we did not apply the four-step text analysis.

Contextual Data:

Title might be that way due to the nature of the game. It requires the performers to concentrate on the game and really focus on what they and the other performers have said. Making sure to memorize all the information that has been said. This game was taught to the performers around elementary schools while the performers were in the U.S. The group of people that would learn this folklore would be young children, attending elementary school in the U.S. This folklore not only helps pass time, but is also a good game that helps with memorizing and keeping concentration, thus the name. Performers may use this game to study the U.S. states or something similar. However, this game isn’t generally used in class. It’s learned in school, but outside of the classroom setting.

When this game is translated in to a different language, the meaning may not necessarily be lost. However, the rhythm might feel off and not work well with the clapping.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript:

Interviewer: “So what’s the hand-clapping game you are introducing to us today?”

Performer 1: “Concentration.”

Interviewer: “Can you explain the rules of this game?”

Performer 1: “So we start with doing the hand motions.

[Shows hand motions]

Performers: “Concentration…64…no repeats…or hesitation…you go first…I go second…starting with…fruits…”

[Performers proceeds by taking turns listing off fruits.]

Performers (switching off listing items in the category): “apple…banana…grape…orange…tomato…blackberry…(indistinguishable)…blueberry…raspberry…strawberry…cantaloupe…melon…(indistinguishable)…papaya…mango…no idea…”

Interviewer: “So what are the words to this? How does it start?”

Performer 2: “Concentration, 64, no repeats, or hesitation, someone goes first, someone goes second, starting, your category.”

Interviewer: “Starting with…your category?”

Performer 2: “Or some people have a different variation where it’s like ‘category is’.”

Interviewer: “And then after that it’s whatever your category is? And then it has to fit with the…”

Performers: “Yeah…the categories.”

Interviewer: “Can you repeat the same item?”

Performer 2: “No you can’t. So, part of the game is memorizing.”

Collector’s Name:

Jennifer He ’20

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore
  • Children Hand Games
  • Concentration

Split – American Children Hand Game

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Title: Split

General Information About Item:

  • Customary Lore, Children Hand Games
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informants: Kaitlyn Kelley and Irene Lam
  • Date Collected: May 9, 2019

Informant Data:

Kaitlyn Kelley has lived in Lakeland, Florida for the majority of her life. She had attended Lakeland Christian School from Kindergarten up until the second grade. Then, she was homeschools during fourth and fifth grade, having skipped third grade altogether. Currently, she studies biological chemical and global health at Dartmouth College.

Irene Lam is of Chinese-American descent. She has lived in Brooklyn, New York for the majority of her life. As a young child, she attend P.S.230 Doris L. Cohen Elementary School in Brooklyn. Currently, she studies computer science and Chinese at Dartmouth College.

Rules:

Performers will start out with the first cycle, which is one round of all the motions. When the performers repeat the motions, this will be the start of the second round. Each cycle will get  progressively faster than the cycle preceding it. The performer that messes up, in this case the performers uses the wrong moves, is too slow, etc, will lose the game.

Text:

There is no text for this hand-game.

Contextual Data:

The performers learned this game around the time they were in Kindergarten or in elementary school. The games were not necessarily taught in class, but were learned from other friends they would hang out with during recess or spare time. When the performers were little, they would generally play this game with their friends when they were standing in lines or when they were bored and needed something to pass their time. Since this hand game does not have any verbal elements to it, it would not loss its meaning when applied to another group. The group of people that may generally know or learn these hand games would be young American children attending schools in the U.S. It might be harder for homeschooled children to learn these games since they may not necessarily be around many other peers their age. These games may have been used for something musical a long time ago, but now is generally more for passing time and boredom.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript:

Interviewer: “So what’s the first hand-clapping game that you guys are performing?”

Performer 1: “I think it’s like Spit…Split?”

Interviewer: “Split?”

Performer 2: “The name’s Split. We’re going to call it Split.”

Performer 1: “It’s like numbers.”

Interviewer: “Split, numbers. Okay. Can you explain the rules of the game?”

Performer 1: “If you mess up the hand motions, then you lose.”

Interviewer: “So what are the hand motions?”

[Shows the hand motions to the game.]

Performer 2: “And that’s like a cycle.”

Performer 1: “That’s one and then you count up. The higher up the number, the faster it goes.”

Interviewer: “And then what’s after that?”

Performer 1: “We do 2, so 1, 2…”

[Proceeds to show the hand motions with the other performer.]

Interviewer: “When do you stop?”

Performer 1: “When one of them, one of us messes up.”

Interviewer: “Can you just do a round until whenever you have to stop?”

[Proceeds to attempt a rounds, but messes up and bursts into laughter.]

Performer 2: “One! We start with one!”

Interviewer: “You can restart again.”

Performers: “One more time.”

[Performs the hand-clapping game.]

Collector’s Name:

Jennifer He ’20

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore
  • Children Hand Games
  • Split

Shotgunning

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Title: Shotgunning

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: May 5, 2019

Informant Data:

  • The anonymous informant was born and raised in Michigan in the 1950’s. He says that he had a mid-west upbringing. No association with the military. Origins from northern Europe (British/German). Growing up he was a practicing Lutheran but not currently. Lived in the mid-west and now in New Hampshire. Currently married with children. Education includes a PHD and a BA.

 

Contextual Data:

  • Informant declined to share much contextual information, but narrows the time-span of when he learned this game to when he was in college. He also describes that there were relatively few drinking games when he was younger and believes that drinking games only became relevant after his generation.

 

Item:

  • One pierces a hole in bottom of a beer can and places it to one’s mouth so it shoots into the mouth with lots of foam spraying. The item used to pierce the can was usually a key because a lot of people didn’t carry pocketknives. The way to fail the challenge is to not drink the entirety of the can. If the drinker was successful in drinking the entire can, onlookers would cheer.
  • Drinking was more social rather than competitive. Shotgunning happened at parties. The informant indicated that a variation would be drinking directly from the tap of a keg of beer. This keg would usually be cheap beer.

 

Informant’s Comments:

  • The professor said that Dartmouth is the place where beer pong originated from (this was later verified). He also indicated that the school’s unofficial mascot is Keggy the keg. “A joyful character”.
  • He thinks shotgunning is done for youthful exuberance, to relieve boredom, and as a social challenge.
  • When the Professor was asked how he interpreted the experience, he responded with, “People have no respect for beer because they want to get drunk quick, so they buy cheap stuff”

Collector’s Comments:

  • Note that there is a large degree of data gaps because the information that the informant was willing to give was limited (so as to preserve their anonymity).

Collector’s Name: Kyle Carlos

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.

Beer Pong 1

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Title: Beer Pong

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: May 9, 2019

Informant Data:

  • (Note: Some information was not recorded in order to maintain anonymity)
  • The anonymous informant was born in 1978, grew up in Connecticut, and received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth. She has lived in the Czech Republic, Boston, and now lives in Hanover, NH. Her Grandparents were in the military which she felt had a large influence on her due to the stories she heard from them growing up. She had an East Coast upbringing and indicates that her family origins are European countries, likely England and France.

Contextual Data:

  • This drinking game was observed between 1996 and 2000, during the informant’s undergraduate years at Dartmouth. The game was observed in one of the college’s fraternities.

Item:

  • Ping pong with plastic cups filled with beer. You hit (volley) the ball back and forth and if you get the ball into your opponents cup they have to drink it. You use regular regular ping pong paddles, but with the handles removed. In stead of  a ping pong table, you use a 4×8 plywood that’s painted – sometimes with frat symbols. The cups are lined up in a V-shape, with the wide end closest to each player. One would win once the opponents sides cups were filled.

Informant’s Comments:

  • The game was played for fun, to pass time, and get drunk. The game was played this particular way to maintain tradition. When asked for her interpretation of the experience the informant explains that back then, it was harmless fun and a way to socialize in a loud basement without talking. The informant also says that drinking games now create problems such as sexual assault and alcohol abuse which is very concerning.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant does not drink a lot nor does she play a lot of drinking games now or in her undergraduate years.

Collector’s Name: Kyle Carlos

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.

 

 

 

Quarters

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Title: Quarters

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America
  • Informant: Cynthia Monroe
  • Date Collected: May 9, 2019

Informant Data:

  • Professor Cynthia Monroe was born on April 29th, 1966. In the early years of her youth she lived with her parents in Los Angeles, California. From there she move to Anchorage Alaska, where she lived for a majority of her life. Her father was in the military but Professor Monroe cannot recall if he was in the service during the time that she was alive. She would describe her family origins coming from a melting pot of European nations. Although she does not currently practice it, she identifies as a Quaker. She is currently divorced with two male children. She received her Undergraduate from Dartmouth and a MFA from British Columbia.

 

Contextual Data:

  • Professor Monroe was a undergrad at Dartmouth and occasionally went to frat parties, Specifically, she frequented Sigep, an all-male fraternity. She felt comfortable there because when she attended their parties (between the years of 1984 and 1986), they didn’t care if you were someone who didn’t like to drink.

Item:

  • One would try to bounce a quarter off the table into a plastic drinking cup. If you got the coin into the cup you wouldn’t have to drink it but if you missed it, you had to drink it – and then it would be refilled for another round
  • At Sigep, students were in sometimes in athletic training so people made a personal limit on how much alcohol they could drink, once they hit that limit the alcohol was switched with water. Professor Monroe always started the game with water in her cups.

Informant’s Comments:

  • Professor Monroe’s interpretation was that for a campus that was largely fraternity focused, Sig Ep both incorporated drinking while also providing a safe space where one could have fun and drink without being afraid.
  • Because of the option to substitute water for beer in Quarters, she said, “Its like the undrinking game.”
  • When asked why she thinks the game was played, Professor Monroe indicated that the game was “a way for way for people who wanted to get intoxicated quickly, to get intoxicated quickly with a point”. She further explained that Sig Ep expanded the bounds of that by including people who did not want to get drunk at all. There was a greater element of choice for what you drank.

Collector’s Comments:

Collector’s Name: Kyle Carlos

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.

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

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.