Girl's Coiled Dowry or Puberty Basket (kol-chu or ti-ri-bu-ku) Item Number: 07.467.8308 from the Brooklyn Museum
Description
This is a conical shaped basket with a stepped flag design in brown on natural fiber colored background. The shells and feathers are fastened to the exterior and extend out from basket. Although called a puberty basket it is thought that this basket was not necessarily used for puberty ceremonial. At the time it was collected it was thought that ceremony no longer was being practiced so such baskets were no longer being made for traditional practice. While it may have been intended for such, there is no physical evidence that it was ever used to hold water, and it is more likely that it was made for sale, an aestheticized version of a traditional form.
Credit Line
Museum Expedition 1907, Museum Collection Fund
Item History
- Made between 1868 and 1899
What
- Name
- Girl's Coiled Dowry or Puberty Basket (kol-chu or ti-ri-bu-ku)
- Identification Number
- 07.467.8308
- Type of Item
- basket, coiled and or
- Material
- willow, sedge root, bulrush root, acorn woodpecker scalp feather, california valley quail topknot feather, oilivella biplicata shell and cotton string
- Overall
- length 7.0 in, width 14.5 in, height 14.5 in
Where
- Holding Institution
- Brooklyn Museum
When
- Creation Date
- between 1868 and 1899
Other
- Classification
- Container