362-185<BR> Model cradle; willow, yucca, pigments, cloth; l. 23.6 cm., w. 11.2 cm., h. 10 cm.; ca. 1880.<BR> The most prevalent type of cradle (tahpu, Wright 1979:47) among the Hopis of First and Third Mesas was made of wicker basketry. Between a U-shaped sapling of juniper, a strong but slightly flexible carrying tray was woven with sumac stems. A wicker bow was added to the upper part as head protector (kokutspi). Infants were swaddled in an animal skin or blanket, placed on the cradleboard on a layer of shredded bark of the cliff rose (Cowania stanburiana), and secured tightly with skin rope or woven bands. The cradleboard was carried with a head strap by the mothers. With regard to Second Mesa both wooden cradleboards with collapsible faceguards as well as wicker cradles have been reported. Model cradles were made for girls, to play with. However, these miniatures also appealed to white travelers and visitors, and from the early 1880s were made in large numbers for the tourist trade (Hough 1919:241, plate 25,49; Whiting 1939:25-26; Dennis 1940:108-110; Wright 1979:47-48; Teiwes 1996:74-81). The sunshade of this specimen is stitched to the frame with yucca and cloth strands.<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> Gevlochten kinderdraagkorf (model).