Standard Tag

Title: Standard Tag

General Information about Item:

  • Children’s Lore, Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: 10-28-20
  • Location Collected at: Dartmouth College Hanover, NH

Informant Data:

  • Anonymous, 22, is a female Dartmouth student in the class of 2021. She was born in New Orleans, LA and raised in the suburbs of Las Vegas, NV between ages 6 and 14, when she left for boarding high school at Phillips Exeter Academy. Her hobbies include dance, Dungeons & Dragons, and her gender inclusive Greek house Phi Tau.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Games for enjoyment and elementary school recess often are meant to include multiple children to keep them occupied without the need of adult oversight.
  • Social Context: Children are socialized by parents, guardians, and peers to enjoy and participate in competitive games against one another throughout childhood. Anonymous learned how to play tag at a very young age, estimated around age 3 or 4. Her siblings most likely taught her.

Item:

  • Tag involves at least two people, with one person being “it”” The person who is “it” chases down the other participant/s to pass on their “it” status. The newly tagged individual is tasked with tagging someone. The cycle repeats.

Transcript:

  • “Pretty much everyone has played tag at some point, so you don’t have to teach someone how to do it. You just decide who is going to be ‘it,’ by any way people agree on. The person who’s ‘it’ has to tag another kid, who then becomes ‘it.’ Usually it’s one ‘it,’ but sometimes the group decides to have multiple.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • Should probably be played with kids of similar age groups

Collector’s Comments:

  • Tag doesn’t need any extra materials so it’s easy to do; the only requirement is that you have enough space to run around.

Collector’s Name: Kyland Narcisse

Dartmouth College

RUSS 13 Slavic Folklore: Vampires, Witches, and Firebirds

Professors Mikhail Gronas and Valentina Apresjan

FALL 2020

Tags/Keywords:

  • Tag game
  • Children’s Folklore