The study of ethnographic-period basketry disproportionately
focuses on decorative baskets or utilitarian ones
associated with the subsistence economy, and does not
consider basketry technology from a behavioral-ecology
perspective. The present study examines cross-cultural
variation in basketry cradles in Central California,
proposes a model of pre-contact diffusion of cradle
technology
across the Great Basin and California,
and considers cradles as both a form of reproductive
investment
and a technology that attenuated foragingopportunity
costs for mothers of breastfeeding infants.
