which has been a favourite game of China's Dong people for more than a thousand years, originated in the throwing and catching of rice seedlings as they were being planted in the paddy fields..
Everyone accepts an invitation to play this traditional sport because it would be considered impolite to refuse. Because of this the young people use it as an excuse to get to know one another and treat it as a form of courtship.
The shuttlecocks are made from materials, such as blades of grass seeds and chicken feathers.
is a traditional game of hand shuttlecock indigenous to Brazil and reputed to be as old as the country itself.
TUPIAN [Tupi]: are a group of South American Indian tribes, indigenous to Brazil, who were occupying the country at the time Europeans first made contact in around 1500 AD. At that time they occupied a continuous strip of the coast from the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro northward nearly to the mouth of the San Francisco river. The original home of this stock probably lay in southern Matto Grosso and Paraguay.
They were a war like people who as a rule wore very little clothing but made much use of feather ornaments and decoration and wore small labrets in the lower lip.
Appropriately enough feathers also played a major part in one of the games they played at the time. That game is "Peteca" a form of hand shuttlecock which has survived to this day, albeit in a modernised form.
NAME: "Peteca", a Tupian word meaning "strike and shuttlecock", has found it's way into the Portuguese/Brazilian language.
CONSTRUCTION: Early petecas were very primitive home made affairs consisting of "stones wrapped in leaves tied inside an ear of corn". A more sophisticated version is described in a Brazil-English dictionary as "a leather pad with feathers stuck in it"
ILLUSTRATIONS: Pictures of petecas are few and far between but on 30th May, 1979, Brazil issued a set of four postage stamps depicting children's toys, to commemorate the International Year of the Child. The 2.50 cruzeiro value depicts an unusual looking shuttlecock which stamp catalogues describe as "Peteca - Shuttlecock", a title which can only have been extracted from Brazilian Post Office literature at the time of issue.
THE METHOD OF PLAY: is simplicity itself. A peteca is just batted from one player to another using the flat of the hand. To illustrate, here is a documented account of an early 20th century incident. "When Brazil was present at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium the Brazilian athletes took with them some shuttlecocks just for amusement on the ship and during the intervals between games. This kind of amusement fascinated athletes from many other countries who wanted, to know the rules of the game, The problem was that there were no rules - it was just for pleasure."
THE MODERN GAME: Some time during the 20th century a net was introduced to separate opposing players and a court marked out. This has elevated the game to the status of being the second most popular in Brazil after association football.
Today the sport is governed by specific rules with a network of clubs and a federation to regulate it. The rules themselves seem to be based on volleyball, but the use of red and yellow cards for offences and flag carrying referees are reminiscent of football.
MODERN PETECAS [Shuttlecocks]: using turkey feathers are hand made to rigid specifications.
is the registered trade name for a hand shuttlecock game, distributed by the German Sports Goods Manufacturer: "Bremshev Sport Gmbh".
HISTORY: The original idea for the game came from "Peteca" which was introduced to Germany from Brazil in 1936 by Karl Krohn, a physical education teacher.
THE NAME: It is likely that the name "Indiaca" is a composite one which reflects it's South American origins. i.e. "Indian" and "Peteca" are contracted to form the trade protected name "Indiaca".
DISTRIBUTION: It is known that the manufacturer is keen to promote the game in other countries and the fact that it has appeared on Japanese phone cards is evidence of it's existence there.
METHOD OF PLAY: Apart from the fact that the shuttlecock is projected with the flat of either hand the game has some similarities with Badminton. These are:
[a] it is a "keeping up" game with the scores changing only when the shuttlecock falls to the floor within the court on the receiver's side of the net.
[b] the rules of the two games are very similar.
[c] normally it uses it's own court and net but sometimes a Badminton court and net are utilised.
Where it differs fundamentally from Badminton is in the number of players which can play at any one time, for there can be as many as six on each side. When this happens the size of the court and the height of the net are adjusted accordingly.
It is a relatively easy game to play, which makes it ideal for family groups of men, women and children to all play together. It is also played as a serious competitive sport.