This passage is adapted from Danielle M. Roemer, “Riddles,” in Children’s Folklore: A Source Book. © 1999 by Brian Sutton-Smith et al.
Questions of when, where, how, and with whom children’s
riddles [are used] have been addressed in the folkloristic and
anthropological literature, but they have rarely been answered
in depth. Prior to the 1960s or so, collecting standards allowed
considerable latitude in the recording of contextual and
interactional data. Many researchers simply ignored the
information. Others sketched out basic parameters, but too
often their observations tended toward the obvious and the
dominant. For example, researchers have tended to regard
community members as a homogeneous group, thereby
assuming that whatever was true for adult riddling held equally
well for children’s. Or, they viewed children themselves as
undiversified, thereby bypassing differences in riddling due to
youngsters’ ages, or, in urban areas, their ethnic heritage.
Especially problematic has been information about settings and
interactional events that encourage or inhibit riddling.
Despite this unevenness in the literature, enough
information is retrievable to at least hint at some cross-cultural
trends. As the first of these, we can identify two broadly
different tracks that communities take with regard to the
appropriateness of distinct groups’ engaging in riddling. First,
there are groups that treat riddling as an activity open to both
adults and children. Among the Anang of Nigeria, for instance,
both adults and children may pose and answer riddles.
Secondly, and in contrast to groups like the Anang,
communities may limit active involvement according to the age
(or perhaps, the social status) of the potential participants. In
some cases, riddling is seen as an adult prerogative. Though
riddles may be posed occasionally to children for specific
purposes, such as testing the youngsters’ intelligence, they are
not otherwise encouraged to participate. As an alternative to
across-the-board restrictions based on age, other communities
require children to simply remain silent when riddling occurs
in adult social events.
Within the literature, the most frequently reported occasions
of adult- child riddling are those involving pedagogy* and
leisure-time activity, respectively. In pedagogic riddling, the
adult takes on the role of teacher, the child the role of student.
The interactions can occur in the home as well as in the school.
To take the home environment first: Among the Chamula of
Central America, mothers may use riddles in teaching their
children to talk. In the Ozark mountains of the United States in
the 1930s, some parents regarded “workin’ out riddles” as an
intellectual discipline for children. They posed riddles to their
children in the hope of training the children’s minds. Similar
motives appear to have been behind adult-child riddling in
other areas of the United States and in Europe. By far, the most
frequent reports of pedagogic riddling in the home come from
Africa. There, riddling is used to amuse children while testing
their wit and competence in culture-specific values. With
respect to pedagogic riddling in the school environment,
several curriculum reports have suggested that riddling in the
classroom can aid youngsters’ development of perceptual and
descriptive skills. Although to my knowledge we have no
ethnographic reports of pedagogic riddling within the
mainstream classroom, there exists at least one report treating
riddle use in formal, non-English language instruction. Diane
Roskies studied classroom activities in Kheyder, a Jewish
primary school. There, a variety of verbal art forms were
applied in the teaching of the [Hebrew] alphabet. As one
example of the pedagogic play, the children were encouraged
to tell riddles dealing with the shapes of the letters.
In contrast to pedagogic riddling, leisure-time riddling is
pursued as an end in itself. Entertainment is the primary goal.
Generally speaking, leisure-time riddling between children and
adults develops in the vicinity of the home, when practical
obligations are few. Although parents and siblings appear to be
children’s most frequent coparticipants, youngsters confronted
by more distant relatives and other visitors may find that they
can use riddling to communicate across the “small-talk
barrier.” Of course, it is always possible that this arrangement
can backfire. Proud of their “funny, clever” children, parents
have been known to encourage the youngsters to “perform”
riddles for the parents’ friends.
*Pedagogy is the method and practice of teaching.
Questions of when, where, how, and with whom children’s
riddles [are used] have been addressed in the folkloristic and
anthropological literature, but they have rarely been answered
in depth. Prior to the 1960s or so, collecting standards allowed
considerable latitude in the recording of contextual and
interactional data. Many researchers simply ignored the
information. Others sketched out basic parameters, but too
often their observations tended toward the obvious and the
dominant. For example, researchers have tended to regard
community members as a homogeneous group, thereby
assuming that whatever was true for adult riddling held equally
well for children’s. Or, they viewed children themselves as
undiversified, thereby bypassing differences in riddling due to
youngsters’ ages, or, in urban areas, their ethnic heritage.
Especially problematic has been information about settings and
interactional events that encourage or inhibit riddling.
Despite this unevenness in the literature, enough
information is retrievable to at least hint at some cross-cultural
trends. As the first of these, we can identify two broadly
different tracks that communities take with regard to the
appropriateness of distinct groups’ engaging in riddling. First,
there are groups that treat riddling as an activity open to both
adults and children. Among the Anang of Nigeria, for instance,
both adults and children may pose and answer riddles.
Secondly, and in contrast to groups like the Anang,
communities may limit active involvement according to the age
(or perhaps, the social status) of the potential participants. In
some cases, riddling is seen as an adult prerogative. Though
riddles may be posed occasionally to children for specific
purposes, such as testing the youngsters’ intelligence, they are
not otherwise encouraged to participate. As an alternative to
across-the-board restrictions based on age, other communities
require children to simply remain silent when riddling occurs
in adult social events.
Within the literature, the most frequently reported occasions
of adult- child riddling are those involving pedagogy* and
leisure-time activity, respectively. In pedagogic riddling, the
adult takes on the role of teacher, the child the role of student.
The interactions can occur in the home as well as in the school.
To take the home environment first: Among the Chamula of
Central America, mothers may use riddles in teaching their
children to talk. In the Ozark mountains of the United States in
the 1930s, some parents regarded “workin’ out riddles” as an
intellectual discipline for children. They posed riddles to their
children in the hope of training the children’s minds. Similar
motives appear to have been behind adult-child riddling in
other areas of the United States and in Europe. By far, the most
frequent reports of pedagogic riddling in the home come from
Africa. There, riddling is used to amuse children while testing
their wit and competence in culture-specific values. With
respect to pedagogic riddling in the school environment,
several curriculum reports have suggested that riddling in the
classroom can aid youngsters’ development of perceptual and
descriptive skills. Although to my knowledge we have no
ethnographic reports of pedagogic riddling within the
mainstream classroom, there exists at least one report treating
riddle use in formal, non-English language instruction. Diane
Roskies studied classroom activities in Kheyder, a Jewish
primary school. There, a variety of verbal art forms were
applied in the teaching of the [Hebrew] alphabet. As one
example of the pedagogic play, the children were encouraged
to tell riddles dealing with the shapes of the letters.
In contrast to pedagogic riddling, leisure-time riddling is
pursued as an end in itself. Entertainment is the primary goal.
Generally speaking, leisure-time riddling between children and
adults develops in the vicinity of the home, when practical
obligations are few. Although parents and siblings appear to be
children’s most frequent coparticipants, youngsters confronted
by more distant relatives and other visitors may find that they
can use riddling to communicate across the “small-talk
barrier.” Of course, it is always possible that this arrangement
can backfire. Proud of their “funny, clever” children, parents
have been known to encourage the youngsters to “perform”
riddles for the parents’ friends.
*Pedagogy is the method and practice of teaching.