Informant: My informant is a close friend who I have known for many years. He is a 23-year-old college student and has lived his whole life in Orange County, California. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he attends the University of Southern California and comes from a prominently Scottish heritage.

I asked my informant if he could tell me about any Scottish games that he knew about as a kid. I asked him if he learned any while at family events or any gatherings with other Scottish people. He told me that he learned a game, but it had nothing to do with his Scottish heritage. He had only learned the game from his uncle and his uncle never specified where he had learned it.

Informant: “The game is called chin, elbow, knee. It is basically just rock, paper scissors but with different rule. Knee beats elbow, elbow beats chin, and chin beats knee. If knee beats elbow or elbow beats chin it is one point. But, for some reason if chin beats knee it is two points. It adds an extra element to the game because you want the two point play so people will go for chin a lot, making it easy to guess to play elbow, and win on point. It is kind of weird cuz if you play a lot I swear you can almost start guessing what people will do. You play to 11 and there are over times if you play the same thing, like if both people do knee, it goes to over time, then if it happens again, double over time, then triple over time, but triple is the highest and when you win you get triple the usual points. We always play this game at family events now so in a way it is kind of special for me. I will probably show my kids how to play in the future.”

Analysis: The first thing that stands out to me is the variation of rock, paper, scissors. I have come across a lot of different variations of this game but this was the first time I heard about chin, elbow, knee. I have seen ridiculous stuff like t-rex, laser, and grenade, or other ridiculous variations that people have made up. I think this style of game is a really good example of variants of games. In the same way that a popular song’s tune creates an outline for other lyrics to be replaced, the outline of rock, paper, scissors is simple enough to allow other elements of the game to be replaced so that theoretically anything can be put into these three spots and you can make up whatever rules you like as to which element beats the other.

Informant back Ground:

This informant is a  Junior at USC in the Naval ROTC program. he considers himself the typical college boy and often enjoys attending the numerous parties around campus.

Informants story :

“So I know this trick I heard from some enlisted guys [navy] while over summer cruise works. What you do is put a shot on your head and get a girl to put her hands behind her back and try to drink the shot from off of your head. What she might or might not know is that her cleavage will be directly in your face while she does it. It’s kind of wrong, but very right at the same time.”

Analyses:

I’ve actually heard of this trick before. This little “trick” is known fairly well throughout the military, primarily due to its masculine environment. This trick has even been featured in the HBO miniseries “The Pacific”. This “trick”, however, is beginning to fizzle out among members of the military as the military begins cracking down on any form of sexual harassment, especially when alcohol is involved. That being said, it is entirely within reason to assume that this action is performed by many other non-military as well. Though this trick may be well and fun should the participating female be aware of the reason for the act, it would definitely be considered sexual harassment by any court should the woman be unaware of what she was really doing.  Even so, the male need for sexual stimulation is unending, and chances are this trick will perpetuate far into the future.

Informant Background:

This informant is a sophomore at USC in the Naval ROTC program. She grew up in Pennsylvania in a middle class family. As a child she enjoyed all things sci-fi and fantasy, and in high school she developed a passion for the military in JROTC.

Informant’s Story:

“When I was little there was this game we played called “4 square”. This was played using a large square that was divided into four smaller squares which were painted on the blacktop of the the recess area, and a ball that could bounce. A red rubber ball was preferable, but anything that was kickball sized and could bounce would work. You basically take turns bouncing the ball to each others squares. The basic rules were that if the ball bounced in your square, you had to touch it and hit it to another square. Each square had a different position, meaning one square was for the king, and the opposite square was the peasant. If you didn’t reach the ball after it hit your square, or you violated any other rules, you would be forced to go down to the peasant square and all the others would move up a level if it was vacant. The king could make up any rules they wanted to. This could mean rules like, clockwise only, or cherry bombs only (cherry bombs being where you slam the ball down on the others square as hard as possible and if they caught it you had to go back to the peasants space. Rules could be anything we could make up and this pretty much made up the entirety of my elementary school experience.”

Analyses:

Though the game is actually an official game, children have been they want to it for decades. In the case of this informant, this shows just how ingenious and complex children can think, taking something taught to them, presumably by gym teachers or other children, with a basic framework, and then completely restructuring it to play how they want to. The amazing thing about the way children have spread this game is that there are unofficial rules that have circulated among children to being solid well known rules. I distinctly playing this as a kid myself, cherry bombs and all. The fact that such rules were known to two kids over a thousand miles away is astounding.