Basket (Pakara)

This basket was collected in 1940 and is probably between 70 and 100 years old. It is a workbasket and was probably used to keep small work tools and materials like cotton and string.

The patterns on baskets help to tell us who made them. We know this one was made by a man because he identified himself with the animals that he hunted for meat. Animals also feature in Amerindian myths and stories and on other objects, so have more than decorative purpose on the basket. The monkey motif here is probably a spider monkey.