return to jumpropes, etc.

[arethinn]

I've been rereading the comments on my December post about clapping and jump-rope rhymes, "Miss Suzie" in particular, and heron61's has struck a new chord with me. He said: "There is a fairly impressive body of general (some gendered, some not) children's culture, with slang, games, rhymes, jump rope songs, and similar things that are quite old. Like all non-mediated culture, it is changing now, as some of it is recorded and then used in movies or TV shows or placed on-line, but until this started happening, it was quite enduring."

(I think what he meant was that its existence endured even without regular media transmission, and that without such the specific forms were probably quite ritualized as well.)

Not news, but I turned my brainwaves towards "why" a little bit. What is so important about this, that so many young North American females learn rhymes like these? What cultural purpose do they serve?

About the only answer I can come up with is "bonding; identification of other members of the same culture". Something very tribal, really. If you know these rhymes, you are One Of Us. If you are taught them, that is your induction.

They have a secondary function as measures of skill, thus, "eldership": who can remember them, who can jump or clap the fastest (at least, so it always was in my neck of the woods); and to an even lesser extent, who can make up the best new lines (more among the older end of the spectrum, i.e., 13-year-olds, not 6-year-olds -- clapping-rhyme filk/fanfiction?? lol. Goes right back to the point about how most fanfic writers are female).

Y/N, thoughts?

Comments

[r-monoxide.livejournal.com]

yay anthropology! I would vote for using teh rhymes and games for bonding and "one of us" The songs might also carry lessons about social behavior.

I also think that rhythmic movement and songs can prepare a child for labor later on. If you're working in the fields or doing manual labor, having a rhythm makes the work feel easier.

[shalora.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with the "One of Us" theory, if only because I was such a social pariah that I was never taught any of them. I picked up a few ("teddy bear", "miss susie", and "down by the river") through hearing the other girls on the playground, but my knowledge of the lyrics is usually rather piecemeal since I was never part of the group. :/

And I think r_monoxide has a very good point with the labor theory, too, given that we did start as an agrarian society with a later segue to industrial assembly lines, both of which are very rhythmic forms of labor.

[heartssdesire.livejournal.com]

It strikes me that the two functions you mention (bonding, eldership/skill) are both sort of 'meta' functions. If you take my meaning. I wonder also about the cultural purposes served by the content. As the other commenter pointed out, some of the content in these things is quite old, and it seems like a fair amount of it can be traced back to historical sources in the culture of adults. Like, for example "ring around the rosie", which supposedly has references to disease epidemics in the past. Maybe there is something going on here about cultural content (images, characters, stories, archetypes etc) from adult culture being imitated and reflected in children's culture. Maybe the playful repetition and rhyming and distortion is some way that children have of processing and internalizing stuff they receive from adults, and sharing it amongst themselves in a play context. I dunno, it's just what strikes me.

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting thought...