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An Anthropological Study on Basketry and Lineware from the Perspective of Plant Ecology and Craft Skills

Research period:2024.10-2027.3

UEBA Yoko

Keywords

Basketry , Plant Ecology , Craft Skills

Objectives

The objective of this research project is to shed light on an aspect of plant use by people from the perspective of human history, with a focus on basketry and the materials used to make it (weaving and binding materials). Basketry generally refers to something made by weaving together flexible lineware , which is made by processing part of a plant. Conventional Japanese folklore studies and other fields referred to this category as “hensohin (interwoven containers),” which focuses on baskets such as kago (bamboo/wicker baskets ), mi (winnowing baskets), zaru (strainers), uke (cylindrical fishing baskets), and biku (creel). But this project will focus on a wider definition of basketry that encompasses products including traps, carpets, wall material, houses, bridges, and boats.
Specifically, we will 1) compare and examine the differences in the craft skills used for creating basketry and the lineware it is made from based on the plant ecology of multiple regions and the correlation between that and the selection of the suitable techniques, from the perspective of production structure and social relations, and 2) examine the dynamics surrounding lineware humans have made for bundling, securing, hanging, and catching in order to obtain and produce food, with a focus on weaving and binding materials. We will tackle these themes from the diverse approaches of textile studies, cultural anthropology, ecological anthropology, folklore studies, archaeology, ethnobotany, forestry science, regional studies, and religious studies.