Basketry Craft Practice in Southwest China: The Case of Defeng Village

Zhang, Lijun; Jackson, Jason Baird

doi:10.2478/jef-2024-0025

Abstract

This paper focuses on the practice of basketry craft and its relationship to changing social dynamics in Southwest China that we have observed through collaborative ethnographic projects across the region. We here focus on the case of Defeng village, a Dong (Kam) settlement where the entire community specializes in producing a particular form of basket called fanyouyou (rice basket) for a regional market. Basket making as a living form of community-based culture in Defeng is practiced, sustained, and adapted by skilled basket makers in a fast-changing social, cultural, and economic landscape. When relevant, we will also compare the basketry in Defeng to other locales that we have visited in Southwest China.

References

FM = Authors’ fieldwork materials from 2019, collected in Liping County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou province. Fieldwork materials from 2017 and 2018 were collected in Nandan County, Hechi Prefecture City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County, Liuzhou Prefecture City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Materials are kept in the authors’ personal collection and permission has been obtained to disclose the informants’ names in the article.
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Basketry Craft Practice in Southwest China: The Case of Defeng Village

Abstract

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