page_title: String figure
section_title: Terms
hierarchical_section_title: String figure / Terms
caption_attribution_description: English: Anatomical string figure locations, both hand. Labels indicate string or loop location near/far, below/above, between, palm/back of hand. Transverse: between hands/fingers Distally: from above/fingertip side Proximally: from below/base side Ulnar: pinkie side/outside Radial: thumb side/inside Dorsal: back of hand Palmer: front of hand/palm side
context_page_description: A string figure is a design formed by manipulating string on, around, and using one's fingers or sometimes between the fingers of multiple people. String figures may also involve the use of the mouth, wrist, and feet. They may consist of singular images or be created and altered as a game, known as a string game, or as part of a story involving various figures made in sequence. String figures have also been used for divination, such as to predict the sex of an unborn child.
  A popular string game is cat's cradle, but many string figures are known in many places under different names, and string figures are well distributed throughout the world.
context_section_description: While in string figure literature there are many phrases often used, there may be some variation with the fingers, loops, and strings indicated in different ways. A loop is the strings that go around the back of a finger, multiple fingers, or another body part such as the wrist. Some authors name the strings, fingers and their loops (near middle finger string, right index finger, pinky loop, for example), while others number them (3n, R1, 5 loop). One of the first methods of recording figures and sets of terminology was an anatomical system proposed in "A Method of Recording String Figures and Tricks" by W. H. R. Rivers and A. C. Haddon. Though location or locations of a string are most often indicated by casual systems of terms such as "near" or "far", the Rivers and Haddon system is far less ambiguous, though this may be unnecessary for the most common, illustrated, figures.
  Below are some common moves, openings, and extensions.
  Openings
  Murray Opening/Index Opening: The loop is grasped with the middle, ring, and little fingers so that there is a couple inches of string between them. These fingers are put together so there is a circle made by the overlapping strings. The index finger is inserted from the far side into the circle, and the index finger rotated upwards, circling towards the body.
  Position 1: The untwisted loop is put on the thumb and little fingers.
  Opening A: Following from Position 1, the right index finger picks up the string on the left hand going between the thumb and the little finger. The left index finger then goes between both strings of right index finger, and picks up the string going from the right thumb to little finger.
  Opening B: Place the loop around one's thumbs, then insert the left index proximally into the thumb loop, taking up the left ulnar thumb string. Insert one's right finger proximally into the left index loop, taking up the radial string and forming an x.
  Japanese Opening: The Japanese Opening is similar to Opening A, however the strings are picked up with the middle fingers instead of the index fingers.
  Extensions
  Caroline Extension: Starting with a loop on the thumb, the string is lifted in the nook of the index finger, then pinched between the index finger and thumb.
  Moves
  Pick up
  Navajo leap, "navajoing", or "Navajo": Given two loops on one finger, the lower loop is moved over the upper loop and released from the finger.
  Release
  Transfer
  Rotate
  Share
  Katilluik (Eskimo–Aleut for:put two things together): the thumbs loops are combined before strings are drawn through them
caption: Anatomical string figure locations, both hand. Labels indicate string/loop location (near/far, below/above, between hands, back of hand/(palm side)) unambiguously.
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