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DOBLE_RICK_RENAMING_BASKET_WEAVING_1.pdf (727.53 kB)

The Need to Change the Term 'Basket Weaving' to the Term 'Woven-Fiber Technology'

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posted on 2021-03-09, 09:15 authored by Rick DobleRick Doble
I am suggesting that the term 'basket weaving' be replaced with the term 'woven-fiber technology' when talking about baskets and fiber constructions in prehistory. I say this because the term 'basket weaving' may be outdated. While it once may have been a general term for all kinds of weaving that resulted in a wide variety of products, most people today think of it as meaning baskets only. Furthermore, while basket weaving was a technology and baskets could be thought of as tools and basketry was clearly an industry, none of these words are associated with Paleolithic or Neolithic basket weaving (see Google searches) although all these terms are used when discussing or researching stone tools from those periods. In the discipline of paleoanthropology, this becomes a serious problem as it tends to limit the scope of research and funding for research. I suggest that the term basket weaving should be replaced with a more inclusive term that also emphasizes that the weaving of fibers was a technology and an important one that may have begun early in the development of hominins. The term I suggest is 'woven-fiber technology'.

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