Basket Hooks from New Guinea

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Basket hooks, also called suspension hooks, are common in the villages of New Guinea. On the Sepik River, they make up part of a typical household's furnishings along with Chambri clay fireplaces and storage jars, Biwat fish smoking pots, assorted fish baskets and nets.

Figure 1: Basket hook from the Middle Sepik River, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.

They are hung from the beams inside and under the houses. String bags (bilums in Pisin English), plaited baskets and other containers filled with items such as yams are hung from the hooks. This helps keep food and important articles stored safely out of the reach of children, dogs, rodents and anything else.

In the men's Haus Tambarans, they may become quite elaborate and their use is often more sacred and ceremonial.

More photographs and information on basket hooks and Sepik River houses

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Photographs, text and maps copyright © Carolyn Leigh, 1996-2010. All rights reserved.
http://www.art-pacific.com/artifacts/nuguinea/hookc.htm
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Artifacts on this site are collected in the field by my husband, Ron Perry. I take the photographs, do the html, text and maps. More background in Who We Are. Art-Pacific has been on the WWW since 1996. We hope you enjoy our New Guinea tribal art and Indonesian folk art as much as we do. Carolyn Leigh, P.O. Box 85284, Tucson, AZ 85754-5284 USA, Art-Pacific at http://www.art-pacific.com/