Full Description
The Material Culture of Basketry celebrates basketry as a culturally significant skilled practice and as a theoretically rich discipline which has much to offer contemporary society. While sometimes understudied and underappreciated, it has much in common with mathematics and engineering, art, craft and design, and can also act as a socially beneficial source of skill and care. Contributors show how local knowledge of materials, plants and place are central to the craft. Case studies include the skill in weaverbird nest building (challenging how we perceive learning in craft and nature), an engineer's perspective on twining Peruvian grass bridges, and the local knowledge embodied in Pacific plaited patterns and knots. Photo-essays explore materials and techniques from the point of view of artists, anthropologists and mathematicians, revealing how the structure and skill in basketwork illustrate a significant form of textile technology. Thus, the book argues that the textures, patterns and geometric forms that emerge through basketwork reflect an embodied knowledge which expresses mathematical and engineering comprehension. The therapeutic value of the craft is recognised through a selection of case studies which consider basketry as a healing process for patients with brain injury, mental health problems, and as a memory aid for people living with dementia. This reclaims basketry's significant role in occupational therapy as an agent of recovery and well-being. Finally, basketry's inherently sustainable nature is also considered, demonstrating the continuation of basketry in spite of handwork's general decline and profiling new and recycled materials. Above all the book envisages basketry as an intellectually rewarding means of knowing. It presents the craft as embodying care for skilled making and for the social and natural environments in which it flourishes.
Contents
AcknowledgementsList of ContributorsList of IllustrationsIntroduction, Stephanie BunnPART ONE: Materials and Processes: from plant to basket and beyond Introduction, Victoria Mitchell 1. Bird-nest Building, Susan D. Healy and Maria Cristina Tello-Ramos 2. Binding Place, Caroline Dear 3. Archaeological Basketry and Cultural Identity in Ancient Egypt, Willeke Wendrich 4. The Sustainability of English Traditional Willow Basket-making, Mary Butcher5. Drawing Out a Tune: from head to hand, Tim Johnson 6. Material Values, Lois Walpole PART TWO: Basketry as Maths, Pattern and Engineering: growth, form and structureIntroduction, Stephanie Bunn7. On the Continuities Between Craft and Mathematical Practices, Ricardo Nemirovsky8. Friction: an engineer's perspective on weaving grass rope bridges, Ian Ewart 9. Basketry and Maths: some thoughts and practical exercises, Geraldine Jones 10. Counting, Number, Loops and Lines, Mary Crabb11. Extracts from 'Imagining the Body Politic: the knot in the Pacific imagination', Susanne Kuchler 12. Secret Strings, Sabine Hyland and William Hyland13. Exploring Mathematical and Craft Literacies: learning to read and learning to make patterned baskets in Vanuatu, Lucie Hazelgrove-Planel PART THREE: Gathering Knowledge: basketry as a medium of memory, belonging and evocationIntroduction, Victoria Mitchell14. Snare and Enfold, Caroline Dear 15. Irish Woven Communities: a glimpse into the Irish indigenous basketry tradition, Joe Hogan 16. Straw Ropes and Wattle Walls: aspects of the material culture of basketry in Atlantic Scotland, Hugh Cheape17. The Primordial Basket, John Mack18. Woven Communities: from handwork to heritage in Scottish vernacular basketry, Stephanie Bunn19. Making baskets, making exhibitions: indigenous Australian baskets at the British Museum, Lissant Bolton PART FOUR: Basketry: memory, healing, and recovery Introduction, Stephanie Bunn 20. Basketry as Therapeutic Activity, Florence Cannavacciuolo 21. The Hand Memory Work of An Lanntair in the Outer Hebrides, Jon Macleod 22. Hand Memories in Net-making and Basketry with People with Dementia, Told Through Life-moment Stories and Associated Images, Paula Brown 23. Meeting Angus MacPhee, the Weaver of Grass. Interview with Joyce Laing, 2016, Stephanie Bunn 24. Making Grass Replicas Inspired by the Work of Angus MacPhee, Joanne B. Kaar25. The Legacy of World War 1 for Basket-making, Hilary Burns 26. Extracts from an Interview with Scholar and Occupational Therapist Dr Catherine Paterson, MBE. Taken from a Collaborative Film made with the University of Hertfordshire and Woven Communities Project, University of St Andrews, Stephanie Bunn 27. Basket-making as an Activity to Enhance Brain Injury Neurorehabilitation, Tim Palmer PART FIVE: Renewal and Realignment: the embodied knowledge of basketryIntroduction, Victoria Mitchell 28. Rush to Design, Felicity Irons29. Nearly Lost: learning knots, knowing knots, loving knots and passing it on, Des Pawson30. Renewing a Dying Craft: the Serfenta Association of Poland, Paulina Adamska31. The Cultural Wastepaper Basket, Ian Tait 32. Braiding and Dancing: rhythmic interlacing and patterns of interaction, Victoria Mitchell 33. Weaving Together: human robot relations of basketry and knitting, Cathrine Hasse and Pat TreuschAfterword: To Basket the World, Tim Ingold Glossary of TermsIndex
