Universal Games: Hoop and Pole
Michelle Scalise Sugiyama | February 17, 2025
“I can see no reason why it should not have been advantageous to the progenitors of man to have become more erect or bipedal. They would thus have been better able to defend themselves with stones or clubs, to attack their prey, or otherwise to obtain food.”
—Darwin (1871:52)
A Little Target Practice
Like play chasing and fighting, games involving throwing are pervasive cross-culturally. In hunter-gatherer and other traditional cultures, one of the most common throwing games is hoop and pole, along with its cousins, chunkey and snow snake. The equipment and motor patterns used in these games are similar to those used in hunting and warfare. The goal is similar as well: in most of these games, the objective is to hit a target — specifically, to throw a modified stick at or through a hoop, ring, or other small object. In other cases, the goal is to throw the stick farther than one’s opponents. If, as hypothesized, motor play activities are adaptations that aid in the development of anatomical structures and behavioral outputs needed later in the lifespan, it is plausible that engaging in throwing play during childhood developed skills that were critical to the effective use of weapons such as spears, clubs, and throwing sticks. Continued play in adulthood may have helped maintain these skills.
“All through civilization, toy weapons and implements furnish children at once play and education. . . . the young South Sea Islander learnt by throwing a reed at a rolling ring how . . . to hurl his spear.”
—E. B. Tylor (1881:304-305)
Hidatsa hoop and pole game | Culin 1907
Man spearfishing from canoe | Tommy McRae 1881
Aboriginal Australian throwing sticks | Smyth 1878
Aboriginal Australians hunting kangaroos | Joseph Lycett c. 1817
Menna and Family Hunting in the Marshes c. 1400 BC | Wikimedia
Rocks, clubs, and throwing sticks were likely the first hunting weapons used by early hominins, and were used by modern hunter-gatherers as well. Among the Naron, for example, “Snakes were caught with the long stick, like anteaters or spring hares. The man who pulls the snake out runs fast, dragging it after him, while others throw knobkerries [clubs] and spears at it” (Bleek 1928:16). In Australia, throwing sticks (e.g., boomerangs) were used to hunt both large and small game, such as kangaroos and parrots. The use of thrown missiles was not limited to hunter-gatherers: they continued to be used in the Bronze Age and beyond. For example, frescoes in ancient Egyptian tombs depict people hunting waterfowl in marshes with throwing sticks and spears.
Although the injury they inflicted was often incapacitating rather than mortal, throwing sticks and clubs were nevertheless highly effective weapons. As one early observer reports, the boomerang “is used either to bring down birds in their flight, or to arrest the progress of men or animals until they can be dispatched by other means” (Wilkinson 1841:250-251). This weapon was also capable of lethal injury, and was effective at a considerable distance: “it will pass through the body of a man, if the point strikes the softer parts. It can be thrown a distance of one hundred and fifty yards” (Smyth 1878:314). The use of hand-thrown missiles is believed to have shaped the evolution of two unique human handgrips, the precision grip and the power grip, which are specialized for gripping spherical and cylindrical objects, respectively.
Power grip | Thomas 1906
Kwakwaka’wakw game dart | Culin 1907
“Ten pieces of kelp, 1 foot long, are placed in the ground at each end of a playing ground 20 feet long. There are two players on each side, each armed with a very sharp spear of salmon berry. The game is to pierce the kelp at the end opposite with the spears. One piece is very small, and if struck, the striker gets all the sticks. The players throw from a crouching position.”
—Culin (1907:517)
Bull kelp | Wikimedia
Hoop and Pole
This game appears to have had a worldwide distribution. It has been documented in at least 90 different Native North American cultures, and was played by Indigenous peoples of South America, Australia, Asia, and Africa as well. Although playing equipment, scoring, and rules varied from region to region, the nature of the game was the same cross-culturally. In most variants, players threw at a moving target, but in some variants the target was stationary. In an Assiniboine variant, for example, players threw arrows at a single arrow planted in the ground as a target. The first player to hit the target won all the arrows that had missed (Culin 1907:391). Similarly, the Makah, Haida, and Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) threw darts at pieces of tubular kelp (Culin 1907:396, 517, 521). In the Haida version, players threw from a crouching position.
In a similar variant known as lance-and-peg, players threw a spear or pole at a small peg or block lying on the ground. In a version played by the Yokuts, losers were subject to a penalty in the form of corporal punishment.
The poles and lances used in these games varied in size cross-culturally. The smallest, such as those used by Paiute and Ute peoples of Utah, were about a foot in length and more properly called darts. In other groups, including the Pend d’Oreilles, Nlaka’pamux (Thompson), and Northern Paiute, game sticks were around two feet long. The Arapaho, Oglala, Omaha, and Absaroka (Crow) used poles in the middling range, from 39 to 57 inches, while the Nimi (Western Mono), Yokuts, Hidatsa, and Bannock-Shoshone used lances ranging from six to ten feet in length. Within-cultural variation occurred as well. Among the Kwakwaka’wakw, for example, “Each player has one ring and one stick, 4 to 8 feet long or more, according to taste” (Culin 1907:520).
Throwing at objects on or near the ground is a common feature of hoop and pole. This may have provided training for hunting small terrestrial game such as rabbits, or aquatic game such as salmon and seals. The crouching position used by the Haida may simulate hunting from a boat.
Inuit hunter with harpoon | Wikimedia
In most hoop and pole games, the objective is accuracy. In some versions, however, the objective is distance. In a Kiowa variant, for example, “arrows are thrown with the hand, like a javelin, and the player who throws farthest, wins. It is a man’s game” (Culin 1907:388). The Naron of southern Africa played a similar game called “Throwing Sticks,” in which players competed to throw a sharpened stick farther than their peers.
“This [Throwing Sticks] is a man’s amusement, even middle-aged men join in. Each player gets a straight but pliable stick about a yard long, peels it and pares the ends to points. All run in turn to a rise in the ground, and throw the stick down in such a manner as to make it jump up and fly on. Each strives to make his stick go farthest. Then all pick up their sticks and start back again from the other side, continuing till they are tired.”
—Bleek (1928:21)
In most variants of hoop and pole, players threw at a moving target. In some cases the movement was slight, as seen in a Lakota game in which players used a stick to hurl lumps of mud at a small ball bobbing in a stream (Dorsey 1891:336). In this variant, the stick is used to throw a projectile instead of being used as a projectile itself. In this application, the stick functions as an extension of the arm, and increases the velocity with which projectiles can be thrown. This same principle is at play in the use of spear-throwers, lacrosse sticks, and dog ball launchers.
Lakota game played by boys in summer | Dorsey 1891
Spear-thrower | Sebastião da Silva Vieira
Lacrosse shot | Tommy Gilligan
Dog ball launcher | Kate Ter Haar
“The principal game is the bies-//heib which is played with a round tuber (bies). The players line up in two rows facing each other and the bies is rolled from one side to the other. As it approaches the opposite side each member of the latter in turn hurls a pointed stick, shaped like an assegai (hei-heigu) at it. If he misses, the bies is rolled to the now opposite side. If he should hit it the bies is left in situ, the sides cross over and it is rolled towards the winning side again. Those who have hit it have preference in hurling the hei-heigu at the bies.”
—Fourie (1928:97)
In most cases, however, the target was propelled by hand at a rate of speed comparable to that of a game animal or fish. Among the Yahgan of Tierra del Fuego, for example, one player ran along dragging a basket attached to a string and the other players threw spears at it (Blanchard 1995:154). The /Koma-khoin of southern Africa payed a variant known as bies-//heib, in which opposing teams threw sharpened sticks at a round tuber (bies) as it rolled along the ground (Fourie 1928).
Image by Rev. Thomas Davidson
In some variants, the hoop was thrown in a manner that caused it to bounce. Among the Ainu of Japan, for example, a member of one team “takes a ring or hoop, about 6 inches in diameter, roughly made of a piece of vine, and throws it with all his might to the opposite party, making it run and bounce along the ground” (Batchelor 1901:275). A variant played in southeastern Australia utilized a disk made of bark, which was “hurled . . . downwards from the shoulder, and with a peculiar jerk—so as to give the disc a ricochet-like movement as it bounded rather than rolled along the grass” (Smyth 1878:50). This bouncing and rebounding action is similar to the movement of small animals that leap, dart, or make sudden turns as they attempt to escape. Thus, hoop and pole variants that deployed this ricochet action may have trained players to anticipate animal movements and trajectories when aiming a spear and timing its release.
Fleeing rabbit | Robb Hannawacker
Swimming salmon | NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Leaping kangaroo | Charles J. Sharp
“one [Mbuti] boy stands in the middle with a large forest fruit at the end of a six foot vine which he swings around him, trailing the fruit about twelve inches above the ground. The other boys stand in a circle around him, their fire-hardened spears poised. As the fruit passes them they throw their spears at it. If they miss they have to dash in to retrieve their spears while the fruit continues to swing around, and other spears continue to be thrown. If a spear hits its mark and holds firm, the boy in the center tries to dislodge it by bouncing the fruit on the ground. . . . This is an additional hazard for the others, as the spear may come flying out at them.”
—Turnbull (1965:125)
Some hoop and pole variants have a dodging or chasing component. An example of the former is seen in a variant played by the Mbuti of the Ituri Rainforest in Central Africa. In this game, one player holds a cord tied to a piece of fruit and swings it around himself in a circle, while the other players try to hit it with their spears. When players miss, they must run in and retrieve their spear without being hit by those of the other players or the swinging fruit.
Epulu River, Ituri Rainforest | J. Doremus
Some variants involve chasing as well as dodging. For example, in a Kwakwaka’wakw variant, the winning team chases the losing team, throwing the rings at them as hard as they can; if a player manages to catch some of the rings, he is allowed to return fire (Culin 1907:520):
Similarly, in a Teton (Lakota) variant, when one team succeeds in hitting the target, they chase the players on other team and beat them with the hoop (Culin 1907:508). As in the Yokuts version of lance-and-peg mentioned above, this penalty component may motivate players to strive hard for success by reminding them of the potentially painful real-world consequences of missing a shot:
Like chase games, some hoop and pole variants were associated with imaginative frameworks, in which game play was conceptualized as hunting. Among the Teton Lakota, for example, the person who rolled the hoop would say, “Ho! There is a buffalo returning to you” and players would try to throw their spears through the center of the hoop, which was called the “heart” (Dorsey 1891:334). The Absaroka name for this game was batsīkisùə, or “mock-hunting” (Lowie 1922:240). Among the Oglala Lakota, playing the game was called “shooting the buffalo,” and both the Oglala and the Cheyenne called it “the buffalo game” (Meeker 1901:23). In Yuki variants of hoop and pole, children pretended that they were hunting deer or spearing salmon.
Oak galls | Elliott Gordon
An Osage Indian Lancing a Buffalo | George Catlin
Comanche Indians Chasing Buffalo with Lances and Bows | George Catlin
“Children’s play was designed to fit them for the duties of adulthood. . . . One boy would start a boulder rolling downhill, shouting, ‘Deer, deer,’ and his companions below would release their missiles as it passed by them. . . . Oak galls thrown into streams made excellent salmon, and from the banks were speared with toy gigs.”
—Foster (1944:181)
Game equipment took on symbolic meaning as well. For the Oglala, the hoop represented the horns of the buffalo and the bone that supports them (Meeker 1901:23). For the Pawnee, the “sticks represent young buffalo bulls, which turned into the gaming sticks,” and the hoop “was originally a buffalo cow” (Dorsey 1904:343).
Oglala Lakota hoop and pole equipment | Culin 1907
Pawnee game hoops | Culin 1907
Buffalo Herds Crossing the Upper Missouri | George Catlin
Buffalo Chase, Mouth of the Yellowstone | George Catlin
In some groups, playing hoop and pole was believed to attract buffalo or bring good luck when hunting them. Among the Pawnee, for example, this game was “originally played for the direct purpose of calling the buffalo” (Dorsey 1904:344). Similarly, the Teton Lakota believed that playing this game would “cause buffalo to come” (Walker 1905:278). Among the Oglala Lakota, hoop and pole was “played to secure success in the buffalo hunt” (Meeker 1901:23). Given that players spent hours throwing sticks at a rapidly moving target, this may well have been the case: playing this game likely improved throwing speed, distance, and accuracy, which would have increased the chances of hitting a buffalo.
Several observers expressly state that hoop and pole was a form of training. For example, Lewis (2002:131) reports that Yaka “boys develop their skill and accuracy in using spears by playing ndaaηga wa songo. This involves spearing a fast-rolling slice of banana tree stem or other suitable plant with a light wooden spear as it speeds through the camp.” Similarly, in southeastern Australia, “the hurling of spears at a disc of bark . . . served to amuse and at the same time instruct the younger male members of a tribe” (Smyth 1878:178). Some researchers specify that hoop and pole developed fishing skills. For example, Batchelor (1901:275) writes that, among the Ainu, “This amusement appears to have been invented in order to teach the children to spear salmon in the rivers.” And Blanchard (1995:154) notes that “the skill developed in the context of playing this game was useful in fish spearing, a basic subsistence technique among the Yahgan.”
Drawing by Aboriginal artist Yertabrida Solomon 1876 | Worsnop 1897
Bark disk used in hoop and pole game | Culin 1907
In some cases, hoop and pole play is virtually indistinguishable from adult instruction aimed at training children in the use of weapons:
“The old man, whether merely to afford the boys amusement or to teach them the proper method of throwing the spear, engaged in the following pastime. A piece of bark was cut from a tree and formed into a disc somewhat larger than a dinner-plate. . . . The boys were placed in a row, and each was provided with a light spear; the elder boy . . . stood at some distance in front of the row, and at a given signal he hurled the bark disc. . . . Each little boy in turn threw his spear. Few hit the disc, but those that struck it or came very near it were complimented by the old man and by their fellows. . . . Other exercises followed this performance, and their aged instructor seemed to delight in the work which he had taken in hand.”
—Smyth (1878:50)
Some observers report that instruction in the use of throwing weapons began early, and that children became proficient in their use in the first decade of life (Smyth 1878:186):
Chunkey
A popular variant of hoop and pole is the game known as “chunkey.” Instead of a hoop, this variant uses a stone disk or ring. The object of the game is to anticipate where the ring will stop, and land the pole as close to the stopping place as possible, or to land the pole on the ring in order to stop it.
Tchung-Kee, A Mandan Game Played with a Ring and Pole | George Catlin
In most variants of chunkey, the pole was thrown at the ring. For example, a 1698 account reports that the Bayogoula of Lousiana “pass the greater part of their time in playing in this place with great sticks, which they throw after a little stone which is nearly round” (Culin 1907:485). In some variants, however, the pole was propelled along the ground using a sliding motion. This is illustrated in George Catlin’s description of the game as played by the Mandan people of North Dakota:
“The play commences with two (one from each party), who start off upon a trot, abreast of each other, and one of them rolls in advance of them . . . a little ring of 2 or 3 inches in diameter, cut out of a stone; and each one follows it up with his ‘tchung-kee’ (a stick of 6 feet in length) . . . which he throws before him as he runs, sliding it along upon the ground after the ring, endeavoring to place it in such a position when it stops, that the ring may fall upon it.”
—Catlin (1841:132)
Unlike other forms of hoop and pole, chunkey appears to be unique to North America. It was especially popular among Mississippian and related cultures, which flourished between 800 and 1600 AD, with some surviving into the eighteenth century. The game was witnessed by several Euro-American explorers, traders, and travelers. Their descriptions suggest that some versions of chunkey involved endurance running. For example, a description recorded in 1775 notes that, in the Choctaw nation, participants played for hours during the heat of the day:
The term “Mississippian culture” refers to several related cultures that began emerging around 600 AD along major river drainages in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States, from the Great Lakes in the north, to the Gulf of Mexico in the south, and the Atlantic Ocean in the southeast. Although these peoples engaged in hunting and fishing, they also developed maize-based agriculture and lived in large urban centers, where they produced ceramics, carved stone figurines, copper ornaments, and shell jewelry. Several pendants and figurines found at Mississippian culture sites depict chunkey players, which suggests that this game may have been played for over 1000 years.
Chunkey player pipe | Wikimedia
Snow Snake
Another popular stick-throwing game is snow snake, which — with some exceptions — appears to be largely confined to North America. Culin defines this sport as a “class of games in which darts or javelins are hurled along snow or ice or free in the air in a competition to see whose dart will go the farthest” (1907:399). Thus, in snow snake the emphasis is on throwing force rather than throwing accuracy.
Culin identifies three types of snow snake. In the first type, a long rod is launched from a position close to the ground, such that it slides rapidly over the snow or ice. The second type is the same as the first, but uses a short feathered dart instead of a rod. The third type uses the ricochet technique: players bounce a rod into the air or over the snow by hurling it against the ground or some other obstacle. The ricochet variant of snow snake also occurs in Polynesia and Australia. Among the Māori, for example, the stick was launched with an underhand motion and bounced against an earthen mound. In Australia, the same motion was used to bounce the stick against the hard ground of the clay pans.
“The method throughout [Polynesia] is practically the same, the dart being a straight rod about as thick as the little finger and . . . about three feet long. The Māori dart was usually a length of dry fern stalk with the thicker butt end bound with a piece of green flax to form a knobbed front end termed poike. A stretch of clear ground was selected and a hard mound of earth formed at one . . . end of the field. The player . . . cast the dart with an underhand throw so that the poike end just grazed the upper end of the mound. The dart . . . ricochetted off the mound and rose in the air with a long trajectory.”
—Buck (1949:243)
“Another game played on the clay-pans by the men is with the playing-stick called by the Wonkonguru kulchera. This is the wit-wit of the Victorian tribes. In this game . . . [players] throw the kulchera with an underhand throw . . . so that it will ricochet off the hard ground. The one whose kulchera travels the furthest is the winner.”
—Horne & Aiston (1924:37)
Map by Edmund1234
In both of these regions, war spears and clubs were thrown using the same underhand motion. For example, the Māori battle spear known as the hoeroa “was made from the lower jaw of a sperm whale and was between 4 and 5 feet in length. . . . The weapon was used mainly in pursuit and thrown with an underhand movement to connect the edge with the spine or loins of a fleeing enemy” (Buck 1949:272). In Victoria, Australia, this technique was used to launch war clubs: “Sometimes the thrower will cause it to strike the ground, rebound, and hit the person at whom it is aimed” (Smyth 1878:314).
Model of Māori hillfort | Ingolfson
As these examples indicate, snow snake variants appear to engage muscles and movements used in the deployment of analogous hunting and war weapons. For example, among the Passamaquoddy, snow snakes were “set in motion by that peculiar movement which boys use in skipping stones on the water” (Culin 1907:406) — the same movement used to launch a hunting club. Indeed, among the Chippewa, rabbit clubs were “glanced or thrown along the surface of the snow to kill the animal, ‘like a snow-snake’” (Culin 1907:402). A Nlaka’pamux game, in which “boys threw pebbles over smooth ice, trying to hit stones or to see which could throw the farthest” (Teit 1900:279), involves a similar movement, suggesting that some snow snake variants may be rooted in stone-skipping.
A description of a variant played by the Yuwaalaraay people of Australia makes the same comparison between stick-throwing games and stone-skipping:
“There is another throwing stick . . . which only weighs about three ounces, and is about a foot in length. . . . thrown to touch the ground, then bound on, sometimes making one high long leap, sometimes a series of jumps, as a flat pebble does when thrown along the water in the game children call ‘ducks and drakes.’”
—Parker (1905:128)
In other cases, the stick was whirled in a rapid circular motion before it was released. In an Absaroka (Crow) variant, for example, the rod “is seized by the end, whirled rapidly around with a vertical motion, and released when it gains momentum” (Culin 1907:415). The circular motion echoes that used when wielding a slingshot, and the vertical movement echoes that used when throwing a tomahawk.
In Victoria, Australia, a whirling motion was used to launch throwing sticks both in play and in bird hunting:
“The wuæ whuunitch is also used as a toy. It is a tapering wand about two feet long with a pear-shaped knob on the thick end. It is held by the small end, whirled around the head and projected with force along the ground, where it skips for a considerable distance. It is also used for throwing at birds. This toy is used in the games after great meetings. . . .and the award is given to those who throw it to the greatest distance.”
—Dawson (1881:86)
Several descriptions of snow snake note that skillful play required arm strength and agility. For example, Morgan reports that “the snake was . . . made to run upon the snow crust with the speed of an arrow, and to a much greater distance, sometimes running 60 or 80 rods [a quarter mile]” (1851:303), while Skinner reports that they could be thrown “a distance of half a mile” (1923:57). Morgan adds that “the success of the player depended upon his dexterity and muscular strength.” Similarly, a Seneca man interviewed in 1888 noted that the “skill in the game is in delivering the snake at the best slant, so that none of the original impetus given by the powerful right arm is lost” (Culin 1907:412). It stands to reason that a game that required arm strength and dexterity would have exercised, developed, and refined these capacities as well. The similarities between throwing weapons and game sticks — in size, design, and method of deployment — underscore this point:
References
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