fishing-basket(?)
- Museum number
- Am1928,0602.9
- Description
-
Basket made of plant fibres, with bark carrying-strap. Usd to transport cassava, hunted animals or coca leaves
- Production date
- 1928 (before)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 54 centimetres (including strap)
-
Width: 20 centimetres
-
Depth: 23 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Information provided by Murui Muina elders and researcher Juan Alvaro Echeverri. Baskets were woven by women. This is not a fishing device. Type of basket: ibigaɨ. Weaving style: uagaɨ. Made of juukai fibers (Maranthaceae). Murui Muina name: kɨrɨgaɨ ibigaɨ
According to Murui-Muina elders Oscar Román Jitdutjaaño and Alicia Sánchez, baskets symbolise the universe containing and connecting everything within it.
Baskets not only demonstrate the weaving ability of the women who make them, they also represent the role of women in preserving ancestral culture. Oscar Román Jitdutjaaño and Alicia Sánchez see tight and intricate weaving as evidence of wisdom, while looser and simpler work implies the loss of traditional knowledge. The ability to produce some of the patterns in these baskets has been lost as a result of the destruction caused by the rubber boom.
On display Room 24 (WTG) Relating to Animals (Amazonia) from July 2021
Román Jitdutjaaño, O. et al. "Genocide Collections at the British Museum: House of Shadows, Basket of Seeds." in Osorio Sunnucks, L and Cooper J Mapping a New Museum: Politics and Practice of Latin American Research with the British Museum. London: Routledge pp 247-257
- Location
- On display (G24/dc4)
- Acquisition date
- 1928
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Am1928,0602.9
