Next: On the formality of Up: Introduction Previous: Who is this paper
Jayne's monograph is the foundational work of the study of string figures. It launched the enterprise of serious large-scale collecting and recording string figures. The articles that proceeded Jayne's work were brief and isolated, each containing only a few figures from specific regions. Jayne contains many figures from around the world, which she gathered at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. In particular, Chapter 3 contains a beautiful complex of Navaho figures.
Everyone who endeavours to learn string figures eventually acquires a copy (or several) of Jayne. And so, it is the common heritage of the string figure community. Formalizing Jayne, reading every line carefully, trying and re-trying every construction, was a way for me to honour that heritage. This work is technical and formula heavy, but á chacun son goût [3].