Cooking basket; coiled. Warp is Epicampes (Sporobolus rigens), weft is Sedge (Carex). Red pattern is Redbud (Cercis occidentalis). Black pattern is Brake fern (Pteris quilina). Flaring coiled basket with design composed of black and red rectangles and zigzag lines.
Donor:
Samuel A. Barrett
Collection place:
Dunlap, Fresno County, California
Verbatim coll. place:
California; Fresno; Dunlap
Culture or time period:
Yokuts
Maker or artist:
Mary Sampson
Collector:
Jess Calhoun and Samuel A. Barrett
Collection date:
February 1907
Materials:
Brake fern, Redbud, and Sedge
Taxon:
Carex, Cercis occidentalis, Pteris quilina, and Sporobolus rigens
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Coiled weaving and Cooking baskets
Function:
1.5 Household
Accession date:
1907
Context of use:
On the sixth morning of the Lonewis, the Chumlus gives the basket to the widow and (if she has one) her daughter so they can wash themselves and then put on new clothes. This marks the end of the mourning period, but tacked on after the Lonewis is a large feast followed by a fun dance, before returning home to normal life, which passes until the next death. The washing was conducted by Jess Calhoun, Drumm Valley George, and certain of their relatives.
Department:
Native California (archaeology and ethnology)
Dimensions:
diameter 40.2 centimeters and height 15.8 centimeters
Comment:
Remarks: For materials see Supplementary Catalogue 1, P. 75. For the special purpose of serving as a basket for washing in the ceremony marking the end of the mourning period of a widow and her family. The washing was conducted by Jess Calhoun, Drumm Valley George, and certain of their relatives and For the ritual see: Latta, Frank F. Handbook of Yokuts Indians / by F.F.Latta. Oildale, Calif: Bear State Books, 1949. Hirschfelder, Arlene B. Native Heritage: Personal Accounts by American Indians, 1790 to the Present. New York: Macmillan, 1995.