The act or process of interlacing three or more strands of material to create a pattern, or the material created by this process.
From 'braid' + '-ing' (present participle/gerund). Originally meant quickly moving or pulling strands apart in Old English, evolved to mean the systematic interlacing technique.
Braiding appears in almost every human culture from ancient Egypt to Japan to West Africa—it's one of those skills so fundamental that anthropologists use braiding patterns to track ancient trade routes and cultural connections.
Braiding has been devalued as 'women's work' and gendered/racialized in colonial contexts, though it represents sophisticated technical and cultural knowledge systems.
Recognize braiding as skilled labor deserving professional compensation and cultural respect, particularly in Black and diaspora communities where it carries ancestral and economic significance.
["fiber interlocking","hair art","textile practice"]
Braiding traditions preserve African and diaspora women's technical knowledge, cultural continuity, and economic self-determination in contexts of historical erasure.
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