Diné Early Basket with Spider Woman Crosses [SOLD]

Spider Woman Crosses are cruciform shapes with black squares at each of the eight corners of the cross.  Earlier baskets featured crosses with outline form only.  Later ones featured crosses with red interiors.  This basket is most likely from the early 1900s.  It has a plug in the center hole made of a strip of cotton cloth, a means of keeping sacred cornmeal from falling out the bottom when being used in a ceremonial manner.

The Diné have a rich ceremonial life that has sustained them as a people during hundreds of years of turmoil and trauma from the invaders of their homeland—first, the Spaniards, then the White people, and, now, the United States government.  Yet, they have maintained their culture and ceremonies which are not of a primitive or pagan nature as one might perceive.

Ceremonial baskets are used in many ways.  Often, the basket holds sacred cornmeal used during a healing ceremony or during the construction of a sand painting.  Among the earliest designs placed on ceremonial baskets is that of Spider Woman Crosses.  Navajo legend beliefs are that Spider Woman taught the Navajo how to weave.  Placing Spider Woman Crosses on a basket is recognition of such and in honor of Spider Woman.  Baskets with Spider Woman Crosses were witnessed by Washington Matthews in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Condition: very good condition considering its age

Provenance:  from a private collection

Recommended Reading: Navajo Ceremonial Baskets: Sacred Symbols Sacred Space by Georgiana Simpson