Sweetgrass basketry: The political ecology of an African American art in the South Carolina Lowcountry
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Date
2014-08-20
Authors
Grabbatin, Brian Charles
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Abstract
This thesis examines how Mount Pleasant sweetgrass basket makers have adapted to, and resisted social and environmental changes associated with amenity-driven land development in Lowcountry South Carolina. This case study contributes to the political ecology literature on rural gentrification, contemporary subsistence, and co-production by addressing how social processes of culture and power underlie changes in the relationship between land-use and rural livelihoods in the United States (Brown 1995, Walker and Fortmann 2003; Emery and Pierce 2005; McCusker and Carr 2005). Findings rely on content analysis and grounded visualization of interviews with basket makers, participant observation at public meetings and events, and Global Positioning System (GPS) field surveys. Results show that despite social and environmental pressures that interrupt traditional methods of gathering materials, sewing and selling baskets, the basket making community continues to find social pathways to incorporate their craft within dominant development patterns, reinventing the process of basketry. This research suggests that by understanding the relationships contributing to the persistence of basket making, policy makers, preservation and conservation organizations are in a better position to develop initiatives that support and expand on the ways basket makers access materials and secure sale locations.
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Basket making -- South Carolina; Political ecology; Gentrification