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

Presents the discipline of basketry as a culturally significant practice, a mode of sustainable craft and design, and 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. She
conducts research through practice into Central Asian felt textiles and basketry worldwide, and collected and co-curated the first ever British Museum exhibition of Kyrgyz felt textiles. She is the author of Nomadic Felts (2010) and editor of Anthropology and Beauty (2020).

Victoria Mitchell is Research Fellow at Norwich University of the Arts, UK, where she was previously Senior Lecturer in Contextual Studies and Course Leader for MA Textile Culture. She works with the theory, practice and history of textiles and basketry, with a particular interest in relationships between materials, making, metaphor and meaning.

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*