Wedding basket

Wedding basket

Navajo wedding basket made by the Paiute. Sumac or willow warp with red, yellow and brown dyed sumac weft.
  • Object: Wedding basket
  • Artist: -
  • Circa: -
  • Dimensions: 12-1/2" diameter by 3-1/2" high
  • Culture Area: Southwest
  • Cultural Group: Navajo or Dineh
  • Cultural Context: In Navajo culture, wedding baskets are used in the wedding ceremony to hold corn meal which is eaten by the bride and groom and others present at the ceremony. It contains blue, yellow, white and red corn meals, each representing a sacred direction (also symbolic of many other elements). Wedding baskets are also used as payment when a medicine man is sought to perform a ceremony, therefore they could be considered currency. In the contemporary Southwest, they are made for the tourist trade as well, and sold at trading posts throughout the region. The quality , and hence the price, can vary greatly.
  • Donor: -
  • Catalog #: 35.601