Franz Uri Boas was a German-born American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical particularism and cultural relativism.
Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.
The Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw, also known as the Kwakiutl are one of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Their current population, according to a 2016 census, is 3,665. Most live in their traditional territory on northern Vancouver Island, nearby smaller islands including the Discovery Islands, and the adjacent British Columbia mainland. Some also live outside their homelands in urban areas such as Victoria and Vancouver. They are politically organized into 13 band governments.
Roger Sherman was an early American statesman and lawyer, as well as a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign all four great state papers of the United States: the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. He also signed the 1774 Petition to the King.
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.
Cat's cradle is a game involving the creation of various string figures between the fingers, either individually or by passing a loop of string back and forth between two or more players. The true origin of the name is debated, though the first known reference is in The light of nature pursued by Abraham Tucker in 1768. The type of string, the specific figures, their order, and the names of the figures vary. Independent versions of this game have been found in indigenous cultures throughout the world, including in Africa, Eastern Asia, the Pacific Islands, Australia, the Americas, and the Arctic.
Mark O'Connor is an American violinist and composer whose music combines bluegrass, country, jazz and classical.
Grenadier Models Inc. of Springfield, Pennsylvania produced lead miniature figures for wargames and role-playing games with fantasy, science fiction and heroic themes between 1975 and 1996. Grenadier Models Inc. is best known for their figures for TSR, Inc.'s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, collectible Dragon-of-the-Month and Giants Club figures, and their marketing of paint and miniature sets through traditional retail outlets.
John Roger Smalley was an Anglo-Australian composer, pianist and conductor. Professor Smalley was a senior honorary research fellow at the School of Music, University of Western Australia in Perth and honorary research associate at the University of Sydney.
Jason Sherman is a Canadian playwright and screenwriter.
Cabinet Magazine is a quarterly, Brooklyn, New York-based, non-profit art & culture magazine established in 2000. Cabinet Magazine also operates an event and exhibition space in Brooklyn.
The International String Figure Association is not-for-profit organization for the preservation, dissemination, and creation of string figures. The association was founded in Japan in 1978 by mathematician Hiroshi Noguchi and Anglican missionary Philip Noble, and is now run by Mark Sherman out of California. Members have included Honor Maude. ISFA publishes the Bulletin of the International String Figure Association annually, ISFA News semi-annually, and String Figure Magazine quarterly.
The British Figure Skating Championships are a figure skating competition held annually to crown the national champions of the United Kingdom. Figure skaters compete in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. Not all disciplines have been held in every year due to a lack of participants.
Formed in 1975, Ral Partha Enterprises, Inc. of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, is now known as Ral Partha Legacy Ltd. and produces miniature figures in 25 mm, 30 mm, 15 mm, and 54 mm scale. The company's products are made by spin-casting metal alloys which depict soldiers, adventurers and creatures that have been inspired by history and fiction. Their miniatures are sold at gaming conventions, in hobby shops, and by internet and mail order for use in role playing games, wargaming, dioramas, competitive painting, and collecting.
Honor Courtney Maude was a British-Australian authority on Oceanic string figures, having published Maude & Maude 1958, Maude & Wedgewood 1967, Firth & Maude 1970, Maude 1971, Maude 1978, Emory & Maude 1979, Maude 1984, and Beaglehole & Maude 1989. One of these being "the absolute bible of string-figure literature" according to Mark Sherman. Maude was a charter member of the International String Figure Association in 1978.
Thomas Thomson Paterson (1909–1994) was a Scottish archaeologist, palaeontologist, geologist, glaciologist, geographer, anthropologist, ethnologist, sociologist, and world authority on administration. He was curator of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge from 1937 to 1948.
Julia Pavlovna Petrova-Averkieva was a Soviet anthropologist and string figure collector. A student of Franz Boas, and influenced by Lewis Henry Morgan, she went on to serve as the director of North American Studies at the Institute of Ethnography in Moscow. She compiled the a collection of Kwakwakaʼwakw string figures, which is recognized as "the most comprehensive Native American string figure collection ever assembled from a single tribe [or nation]."
Kathleen Haddon Rishbeth was a British zoologist, photographer and collector of string figures. She was the wife of Australian geographer Oswald Rishbeth.
Cecile L. Vashaw was an American composer, conductor, and music educator who is best remembered today for her string method books and for founding and conducting the Toledo Youth Symphony.
