Basket of Plums, painting by Pierre Dupuis.

A basket is a container which is traditionally constructed from stiff fibres, which can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehair, baleen, or metal wire can be used. Baskets are generally woven by hand. Some baskets are fitted with a lid, others are left open.

The plant life available in a region affects the choice of material, which in turn influences the weaving technique. Rattan and other members of the Arecaceae or palm tree family, the thin grasses of temperate regions, and broad-leaved tropical bromeliads each require a different method of twisting and braiding to be made into a basket. The practice of basket making has evolved into an art. Artistic freedom allows basket makers a wide choice of colors, materials, sizes, patterns, and details.

Uses[link]

On the left side are live fowl baskets. Directly to the right are flat baskets used for selling shrimp and small fish in Haikou City, Hainan Province, China

Baskets serve utilitarian as well as aesthetic purposes. Some baskets are ceremonial, that is religious, in nature.^[1] While baskets are typically used for storage and transport, specialized baskets are as sieves, for cooking, for processing seeds or grains, for tossing gambling pieces, rattles, fans, fish traps, and other uses.

History[link]

Archaeological sites in the Middle East show that weaving techniques were used to make mats and possibly also baskets, circa 8000 BCE^{[citation needed]}. Twined baskets date back to 7000 BCE in Oasisamerica.^[1] Baskets made with interwoven techniques were common at 3000 BCE.

The carrying of a basket on the head, particularly by rural women, has long been practised. Representations of this in Ancient Greek art are called Canephorae.

Figurative and literary usage[link]

The phrase "to hell in a handbasket" means to rapidly deteriorate. The origin of this use is unclear. "Basket" is sometimes used as an adjective towards a person who is born out of wedlock^{[citation needed]}. This occurs more commonly in British English.

See also[link]

• Basket weaving
• Canephorae
• Weaving
• Native American basketry
• Native American basket weavers

Gallery[link]

• 

  Ethiopian woman gathering coffee beans in a basket

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  Seri Indian pot-shaped basket (Northern Mexico)

• Bending vines for basket construction - Ponape.jpg

  Bending vines for basket construction - Pohnpei

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  Cherokee rivercane basket by Peggy Brennan, Oklahoma

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  Inuit basket of whale baleen with a walrus ivory finial, Barrow, Alaska

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  Black ash baby basket by Odawa-Ojibwe Kelly Church, Michigan

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  Yurok baskets from Redwood National Park area, California

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  Traditional western Hubei baskets (China)

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Zepeda, Ofelia (1995). Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert. ISBN 0-8165-1541-7.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Basket

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Basket.

• Baskets, The Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art