ABSTRACT
June Factor collected these children’s play rhymes from Australian school playgrounds.1 ) ey reveal children’s interest in those aspects of human existence usually absent from polite conversation. “[V]ulgar play rhymes of amusement” such as these, Ian Turner argues, come from “those childhood years when the children are making their ? rst break from their parents, and consequently from their parents’ standards, when they are seeking their independent identity in the society of their peers.” Turner understands such “childish vulgarity [to be] an unsophisticated act of rebellion.”2 Certainly the language used may be deemed to be low within the prevailing hierarchy of adult aesthetics. However, the psychological fears and taboos children are tapping into and exploring in their play rhymes are not merely unsophisticated childish concerns, but culturally based unconscious fears also shared by adults. In the ? rst rhyme, notions of who eats whom and the food chain are perhaps being explored, while the second and third rhymes explore themes of reproduction and sexuality. ) e third rhyme also breaches and therefore tests taboo language rules.
