Basket

For other uses, see Basket (disambiguation).

Basket of Plums, painting by Pierre Dupuis.

A basket is a container which is traditionally constructed from stiff fibers, which can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehair, baleen, or metal wire can be used. Baskets are generally woven by hand. Some baskets are fitted with a lid, others are left open.

Uses

On the left side are live fowl baskets. Directly to the right are flat baskets used for selling shrimp and small fish in Haikou City, Hainan Province, People's Republic of China

Baskets serve utilitarian as well as aesthetic purposes. Some baskets are ceremonial, that is religious, in nature.^[1] While baskets are typically used for storage and transport, specialized baskets are as sieves, for cooking, for processing seeds or grains, for tossing gambling pieces, rattles, fans, fish traps, laundry, and other uses.

History

Prior to the invention of woven baskets, people used tree bark to make simple containers. These containers could be used to transport gathered food and other items, but crumble after only a few uses. Weaving strips of bark or other plant material to support the bark containers would be the next step, followed by entirely woven baskets. The last innovation appears to be baskets so tightly woven that they could hold water.

Depending on soil conditions, baskets may or may not be preserved in the archaeological record. Sites in the Middle East show that weaving techniques were used to make mats and possibly also baskets, circa 8000 BCE. Twined baskets date back to 7000 BCE in Oasisamerica.^[1] Baskets made with interwoven techniques were common at 3000 BCE. Baskets were originally designed as multi-purpose baskets to carry and store and to keep stray items about the home. The plant life available in a region affects the choice of material, which in turn influences the weaving technique. Rattan and other members of the Arecaceae or palm tree family, the thin grasses of temperate regions, and broad-leaved tropical bromeliads each require a different method of twisting and braiding to be made into a basket. The practice of basket making has evolved into an art. Artistic freedom allows basket makers a wide choice of colors, materials, sizes, patterns, and details. The carrying of a basket on the head, particularly by rural women, has long been practised. Representations of this in Ancient Greek art are called Canephorae.

Figurative and literary usage

The phrase "to hell in a handbasket" means to rapidly deteriorate. The origin of this use is unclear. "Basket" is sometimes used as an adjective towards a person who is born out of wedlock.^[2] This occurs more commonly in British English. "Basket" also refers to a bulge in a man's crotch.^[2]

Materials

Palm baskets (front) and wicker baskets (back)

Materials have been used by basket makers:

Gallery

Baskets four styles
Baskets - Danforth Museum - Framingham, MA
A set of traditional hand woven native Indian Nuu-chah-nulth peoples' baskets (Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada)
Baskets for sale in the island of La Réunion, east of Madagascar
Straw hats and baskets for sale at the Luangwa turn-off on Great East road, Zambia.
Storage basket, Pomo people, (indigenous people of California), Honolulu Museum of Art
Trinket Basket, Makah people, Northwest Washington, late 19th to early 20th century, twined and plaited bear grass, sedge, cedar bark
Nootka Makah baskets - Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History
Wood art amazing tool
Ethiopian woman gathering coffee beans in a basket
Seri Indian pot-shaped basket (Northern Mexico)
Bending vines for basket construction - Pohnpei
Inupiat basket of whale baleen with a walrus ivory finial, Barrow, Alaska
Black ash baby basket by Odawa-Ojibwe Kelly Church, Michigan
Yurok baskets from Redwood National Park area, California
Traditional western Hubei baskets (China)
Sweetgrass basket made by the Gullah culture of coastal Georgia or South Carolina, USA
Backpack made of birch bark.
Egyptian basket preserved in the Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer, Vilanova i la Geltrú
A woman carrying a basket full of vegetables on her head in K R Market, Bangalore, India
Contemporary bamboo baskets of Bangladesh.

References

1 2 "Hopi Basketry." Northern Arizona Native American Culture Trail. (retrieved 13 Nov 2011)
1 2 "basket, n.". oed.com. Retrieved 18 March 2015.

Sources

Zepeda, Ofelia (1995). Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert. ISBN 0-8165-1541-7.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Basket.

"Basket". Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). 1911.
Baskets, The Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Prehistoric technology

Tools

Farming

Food processing

Hunting

Arrow Boomerang throwing stick Bow and arrow history Nets Spear Spear-thrower baton harpoon woomera Schöningen Spears

Projectile points	Arrowhead Bare Island Cascade Clovis Cresswell Cumberland Eden Folsom Lamoka Manis Site Plano Transverse arrowhead

Systems	Game drive system Buffalo jump

Toolmaking

Other tools

Architecture

Ceremonial	Göbekli Tepe Kiva Standing stones megalith row Stonehenge Pyramid

Dwellings	Neolithic architecture British megalith architecture Nordic megalith architecture Burdei Cave Cliff dwelling Dugout Hut Quiggly hole Jacal Longhouse Mud brick Mehrgarh Neolithic long house Pit-house Pueblitos Pueblo Rock shelter Blombos Cave Abri de la Madeleine Sibudu Cave Stone roof Roundhouse Stilt house Alp pile dwellings Wattle and daub

Water management	Check dam Cistern Flush toilet Reservoir Water well

Other architecture	Archaeological features Broch Burnt mound fulacht fiadh Causewayed enclosure Tor enclosure Circular enclosure Goseck Cursus Henge Thornborough Oldest buildings Megalithic architectural elements Midden Timber circle Timber trackway Sweet Track

Arts and culture

Material goods	Baskets Beadwork Beds Chalcolithic Clothing/textiles timeline Cosmetics Glue Hides shoes Ötzi Jewelry amber use Mirrors Pottery Cardium Grooved ware Linear Jōmon Unstan ware Sewing needle Weaving Wine Winery wine press

Prehistoric art	Art of the Upper Paleolithic Art of the Middle Paleolithic Blombos Cave List of Stone Age art Bird stone Bradshaw rock paintings Cairn Carved Stone Balls Cave paintings painting pigment Cup and ring mark Geoglyph Golden hats Guardian stones Megalithic art Petroform Petroglyph Petrosomatoglyph Pictogram Rock art Stone carving Sculpture Statue menhir Stone circle list British Isles and Brittany Venus figurines

Burial	Burial mounds Bowl barrow Round barrow Mound Builders culture U.S. sites Chamber tomb Severn-Cotswold Cist Dartmoor kistvaens Clava cairn Court tomb Cremation Dolmen Great dolmen Funeral pyre Gallery grave transepted wedge-shaped Grave goods Jar burial Long barrow unchambered Grønsalen Megalithic tomb Mummy Passage grave Rectangular dolmen Ring cairn Simple dolmen Stone box grave Tor cairn Tumulus Unchambered long cairn

Other cultural	Astronomy sites lunar calendar Behavioral modernity Origin of language Prehistoric medicine trepanning Evolutionary musicology music archaeology Prehistoric music Alligator drum flutes Divje Babe flute gudi Prehistoric numerals Origin of religion Paleolithic religion Prehistoric religion Spiritual drug use Prehistoric warfare Symbols symbolism

Authority control	GND: 4165298-8 NDL: 00576681

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