Making string figures is a dying cultural practice. It was done by people all over the world for who knows how long (because string decays quickly and most writers of history didn’t care about the varied designs made out of string using different hand motions). One of the most complex catalogues of string figures comes from the Inuit peoples of the Arctic. (Because we don’t know how ancient string communication was among the Inuit, I have included the practice in the section “Early Americas.”) Shown here in this first slide is a drawing by a Jemima Angelik Nutarak made in 1964 which depicts an older woman demonstrating a string creation to a younger person. Hovering at the top of the page is an up-close drawing of the figure.
The Arctic circle’s indigenous groups had many different traditions — it was only in the 19th century that some Western academics began to record their customs and ways of life, and by that time their older habits were changing. Nonetheless, some groups seem to have wanted the string figures only to be made during the winter, when the sun never rose. Others thought that women were the main participants, but there is ample evidence that man and boys also enjoyed the pass time of making string figures. You can see an example of a figure known as the “shaman” on the second slide.
As the number of people who know how to make the various designs dwindles in our modern age, ethnographers have started seeking out people in the Inuit communities to speak about these figures and note that they served varying purposes: amusement, certainly, but the designs also could help with communication, their pictures serving as key ideas
