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Full Description
California Indian Baskets is lavishly illustrated in full colour with rare baskets from the magnificent collections of the University of California, Harvard University, Smithsonian Institution, The British Museum, Madrid's Museo de America, Royal Museum of Scotland, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Southwest Museum and many other world-class museums and private collections. The vast majority of these rare baskets have never appeared in print before. Made possible in part through the support and vision of three California Indian tribes, this remarkable book is the result of decades of research by noted basketry scholar Ralph Shanks. Expertly researched and well written, California Indian Baskets honours the achievements of the First Californians. The book illuminates Native American art, history, technology, population movements, cultural interactions and native plant uses. The book demonstrates basketry studies can rank with archaeology, linguistics and DNA research in understanding and appreciating Native American culture and history. This is especially true in California where baskets were central to daily life. It was through basketry that the most populous and linguistically diverse Native American population in the United States was able to create a highly productive economy and vibrant cultural life with no agriculture and very limited use of pottery. Native California was not "pre-agricultural," but rather a land where basketry was combined with native plant resources so successfully that agriculture was not needed. Ralph Shanks is the author of the companion volume, Indian Baskets of Central California, and is president of the Miwok Archeological Preserve of Marin. Lisa Woo Shanks is editor of the Indian Baskets of California and Oregon series.
