Basket
A woven basket made for European taste. Those baskets made for the domestic market would be (coiled) round in shape.,
Symbolic of domestic dwellings -- it is possible to respect and receive the ancestors in a round house, but not in a square house. Missionaries encouraged people to live in square buildings as it fitted their idea of ‘order'. The customary round house is considered akin to a womb, with the entrance acting as a vagina, the internal space is a place of creation. A child is properly ‘born’ when it is taken from inside the house to the outside.
Donated to RAMM in 2005, this item was acquired late 1800s to 1920s.
L. 339 x W. 208 x H. 129mm
Symbolic of domestic dwellings -- it is possible to respect and receive the ancestors in a round house, but not in a square house. Missionaries encouraged people to live in square buildings as it fitted their idea of ‘order'. The customary round house is considered akin to a womb, with the entrance acting as a vagina, the internal space is a place of creation. A child is properly ‘born’ when it is taken from inside the house to the outside.
Donated to RAMM in 2005, this item was acquired late 1800s to 1920s.
L. 339 x W. 208 x H. 129mm
Object Summary
- Accession Loan No.
- 434/2005/39/2
- Collection Class
- Containers
- Collection Area Region
- S
- Material
- plant fibre
- Common Name
- basket
- Simple Name
- basket
- Production County
- Colony of Natal (now southern KwaZulu-Natal)
- Production Country
- South Africa
- Production Year Low
- 1800
- Production Year High
- 1920s
