362-183, 184<BR> Wicker plaque; sumac, rabbitbrush, yucca; 362-183: d. 17 cm.; 362-184: d. 26 cm.; ca. 1880.<BR> RMV 362-183 exhibits a design of radiating colored circles, the two prominent ones consisting of bands of shifting squares. This design is possibly qöqön, "circles going round," but it also could be a variation of nangu'yungyapu, "holding together", the marriage tray which symbolizes the union between two families, represented by the squares (Wright 1979:65; Breunig 1982:10,12; cf. Teiwes 1996:136 for a contemporary example). The rims of both plaques are stitched with yucca and stained red.<BR> 362-183, 184 Wicker basketry<BR> The wicker technique of basketry weaving is relatively rare in Native North America, but prevalent among the Hopis and Zunis. Except in plaques, the wicker technique was used in making bows for cradleboards (cf. the model cradle RMV 362-185), bowls and peach baskets, the latter woven by men, an exception. A few kachina masks were also woven in wicker, including Aholi and Broadface. Among the Hopis, Third Mesa was the center of production of such baskets, notably Oraibi. Materials used were sumac (Rhus trilobata), for the foundation, and rabbit brush (Chrysothamnus graveolens) and golden crownbeard (Verbesina encelioides) for the weft. After gathering, peeling and smoothing the stems, they were dyed in a variety of colors. Melon seeds were chewed and the mixture of seed oil and saliva, acting as a mordant, was mixed with a series of coloring agents.<BR> Traditional shapes of wicker baskets include round plaques, either flat (yungyapu) or slightly curved upwards along the rim (yungyapugölökpu) for holding corn meal, fruit, and piki, the wafer-thin Hopi bread, rectangular or sometimes square trays for corn bread, shallow and deep bowls, and bucket-shaped burden baskets with rounded bottoms, often referred to as peach baskets. For an outside market right-angled deep baskets were developed after 1880. Wicker plaques are very much in use in ceremonial contexts, holding prayer sticks, prayer feathers, bean sprouts, or sacred corn meal. In the Owaqol and Lakon ceremonies, women dance in a semicircle holding wicker plaques in front of their bodies, and give these away after the ritual. Kachinas also present wicker plaques to those attending their dances, notably to the girls during Powamu, the Bean Dance, when they each receive a plaque and a small kachina doll. Plaques are part of the gift of the bride's family to the family of the groom.<BR> Designs are manifold on wicker basketry, and vary from purely geometric to naturalistic. Many such geometric designs have their own names. Naturalistic designs include depictions of kachinas and animals, notably birds and butterflies. This type of basket is still being made today for a tourist and collector's market (Mason 1904:504-506, plates 47,85; Hough 1915:92; 1919:264-265, plate 33-37; Stephen 1936:162-3,240; Douglas 1940:198; Mori 1972:32-54; Wright 1979:61-66; Breunig 1982; Tanner 1983:63-73; Whiteford 1988:149-155; Teiwes 1996:32-49; Dalrymple 2000:119,122-125; Nichols 2000:158-159,226-227).<BR> <BR> 362-170 through 185, 362-188, 189, 190 Hopi basketry<BR> The sedentary and horticultural Hopis produced a vast amount of basketry in different techniques, a tradition reaching back into prehistoric ancestral times labeled "Basketmaker I, II and III" by archaeologists, because of the prevalence of basketry artifacts at these sites. This era stretched the period from 1 A.D. until 700/750 A.D. Coiling, plaiting and wickerwork were the main weaving techniques for baskets, with twining a minor technique used for mats to wrap wedding blankets. The Hopis obtained twined baskets from the Utes in trade, but also traded their own baskets with neighboring tribes (Hough 1919:251; Morris and Burgh 1941; Adovasio and Andrews 1985).<BR> The plant materials used in Hopi basketry offered a variety of natural colors and shades. Yucca splints from outer leaves are olive-green. Bleaching in the sun turned the splints yellow, while fresh inner shoots gathering during the summer months are almost white, and freezing these turned them even whiter. A variety of vegetal and mineral agents were used in boiling the splints to provide them with a various colors: kaolin limestone (white); sunflower seeds, sumac, navy and kidney beans, soot, lignite coal (black); navy and kidney beans, sunflower shells, trade indigo from Meso-America (dark blue); larkspur (Delphinium) (light blue); greenthread or Hopi tea (Thelesperma megapotanicum; Hopi: hohoisi), Navajo tea (Thelesperma subnudum; Hopi: siita) (orange-red); Thelesperma grass, alderbark, sumac berries, cockscomb (Rhinanthus minor) flowers, iron ochre (red); pink corn, amaranth, cockscomb, pigweed (Cycloloma atriplicifolium) (pink); cockscomb, sunflower seeds (violet); rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus; Hopi: siváapi) flowers, flowers of fetid marigold (Pectis angustifolia; Hopi: tu'i'tsma), ochre (yellow); rabbitbrush bark, copper carbonate (malachite and azurite) (green). Vegetal dyes tended to fade rapidly in sunlight. To assure the effective bonding between the fibers and dyes, and render the colored fibers more color proof, a variety of mordants were used, including alum, limonite, rock salt, copper carbonate, tannic acid, human urine, sheep manure, and smoke (Hough 1900; 1919:265; Whiting 1939:26-28; Colton 1965; Teiwes 1996:23-29,42-49).<BR> Designs on traditional Hopi basketry are primarily symbolic, and only secondarily aesthetic. Most designs refer to religious ideas about fertility and include birds, feathers, clouds, rainbows, lightning, planets and stars, snakes, butterflies and flowers, and kachinas. These are represented in abstract and geometric form as well as more naturalistic ways, with a tendency towards the latter, especially in coiled basketry, where production for an external market is involved. This external market expanded rapidly with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1882 (Hough 1919:268-270).<BR> The Hopis used their basketry for a great variety of utilitarian, social, and ceremonial purposes. As domestic containers they held corn, flour, bread, beans, fruits, nuts, seeds, etc. In their ceremonies basketry sometimes played a significant role. Marriage customs involve reciprocal gifts of coiled plaques, laden with food, between the families of the bride and groom. The women's Lakon Society performed the Basket Dance, carrying several varieties of baskets, and distributing them at the end of the ceremony. At the occasion of the Powamu or Bean Dance, baskets are given to girls, and baskets are buried with eagles that are ceremonially killed. Part of marriage rites is the giving of basketry plaques, some with a specific marriage-design, by the bride's family to the family of the groom, in exchange for the wedding dress (Stephen 1939: 323,837; Wright 1979:64; Breunig 1982:10; Tanner 1983:49; Whiteford 1988:150; Miller 1989).<BR> (Hovens 2008-09)<BR> <BR> <BR> Een gevlochten bord. Zie 362-183.