Let's Get the Rhythm

Girls worldwide play hand-clapping games using different rhymes to tell a wide array of stories. Director Irene Chagall speaks with participants and observers in America to solicit their thoughts on the subject. Nine-year-old Eve from New Jersey says, “I think clapping games are really fun, because you don't need anything but your hands.” In these games, girls roughly aged 6-to-11 face each other and clap hands in groups of two, four, or more. In conjunction with modern-day scenes, Chagall includes grainy footage of girls from the 1930s through the ‘70s engaging in the same sort of games. Anthropologist Rafael Pérez Arroyo says that these clapping games have been around at least since the Paleolithic era. Kids appreciate the fact that they learn from each other rather than parents or teachers (nowadays some also study YouTube videos). Khadijah Shaheed, a community liaison, notes that there is no financial barrier to participating in clapping games, which for girls attending schools with scarce resources provide a constructive way to pass the time during recess. Although some songs reinforce gender stereotypes, the girls interpret the material as they choose, and many have endless variations. Enduring favorites include “Rockin' Robin,” “Miss Susie Had a Steamboat,” and “Miss Mary Mack.” Author Ellen Disayake points our that these games prioritize cooperation over competition, because things fall apart if one girl tries to sing or clap faster than the other (and that is one of the reasons, among others, that girls are more likely to gravitate towards clapping games than boys). Poets and musicians are also on hand to praise the musical and lyrical complexity of clapping games. An intriguing look at a longstanding cultural phenomenon, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (K. Fennessy)