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Phenomenology, Pomo Baskets, and the Work of Mabel McKay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Sheridan Hough
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Abstract

This article characterizes the work of Native basket weaver Mabel McKay, using some of the conceptual tools of twentiethth'century phenomenologist Maurice Mer-leau-Ponty. Specifically, McKay's baskets have often been described as “living;” Mer-leau-Ponty's account of the world as “living flesh” seems to suggest a way of thinking about these baskets as more than mere artifacts. I conclude that McKay's baskets are a powerful propaedeutic: they awaken a sense of ourselves as perceivers.

Type
Indigenous Women in the Americas
Information
Hypatia , Volume 18 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Indigenous Women in the Americas , Spring 2003 , pp. 103 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by Hypatia, Inc.

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