Table of Contents

Acknowledgements List of Contributors List of Illustrations Introduction, Stephanie Bunn PART 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 Butcher 5. 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 structure Introduction, Stephanie Bunn 7. On the Continuities Between Craft and Mathematical Practices, Ricardo Nemirovsky 8. 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 Crabb 11. Extracts from 'Imagining the Body Politic: the knot in the Pacific imagination', Susanne Küchler 12. Secret Strings, Sabine Hyland and William Hyland 13. 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 evocation Introduction, Victoria Mitchell 14. 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 Cheape 17. The Primordial Basket, John Mack 18. Woven Communities: from handwork to heritage in Scottish vernacular basketry, Stephanie Bunn 19. 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. Kaar 25. 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 basketry Introduction, Victoria Mitchell 28. Rush to Design, Felicity Irons 29. Nearly Lost: learning knots, knowing knots, loving knots and passing it on, Des Pawson 30. Renewing a Dying Craft: the Serfenta Association of Poland, Paulina Adamska 31. 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 Treusch Afterword: To Basket the World, Tim Ingold Glossary of Terms Index

Promotional Information

The first academic work to focus on basketry and to present the discipline as a culturally significant practice, as a mode of sustainable craft and design, and as a socially beneficial source of skill and care.

About the Author

Stephanie Bunn is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews, UK. Victoria Mitchell is Research Fellow at Norwich University of the Arts, UK

Reviews

At a time when we need, more than ever, to reconnect with each other and our environment, The Material Culture of Basketry is a reminder of how the most simple things can be so meaningful and sophisticated. This exploration of how the process of basketry has influenced our history, culture and global economy is both surprising and fascinating. It is a rich and compelling case for craft skills and material knowledge.
*Rosy Greenlees, Crafts Council, UK*

The Material Culture of Basketry is a tour de force. The spotlight is on baskets and basket making, but the chapters in this collection are about far more. Taking a boldly interdisciplinary approach, objects and artisanal practices become effective means for authors to probe a vast range of anthropological concerns, including cultural meaning; sociality, well-being and recovery; embodied skill, situated problem solving and the intelligent hand; ecology and place-making; human origins, history and development; and techniques of making that we share with fellow species. The significance of this book is far reaching and will surely be on interest to scholars and craftspeople alike.
*Trevor H J Marchand, SOAS University of London, UK*

Baskets stand for a fast vanishing connective world. No robot can make a basket. A retired consultant pathologist discusses making basket with brain injury patients in a remarkable interdisciplinary collection is written by diverse contributors - basket makers, mathematicians, ethnographers, and archaeologists. Baskets - threatened by plastic containers of all kinds, their materials harder to access, their rhythmic, complex patterns growing unfamiliar - have much to teach us. The process of making baskets throws light on embodied knowledge, changing global economies and the subtle interactions between humans and plant materials. They are not simply evidence of technique, being also records of social relations. This visionary and sustaining book should be read by anyone concerned for the future of this planet.
*Tanya Harrod, Founder Editor of the Journal of Modern Craft, UK*