Query: Folklore studies about predatory figures using baskets

I teach a course on the History of Monsters, Aliens, and the Supernatural, and one of my students has been developing some ideas about what he refers to as "a motif among certain bogeymen figures throughout the world's mythologies." As he puts it, there seem to be numerous examples of what he generically refers to as "The Basket Woman," an ogre-like figure who carries around a basket and acts in an intimidating, even brutal fashion – especially toward children – much like the stories surrounding Krampus in central Europe. He finds it intriguing that such characters in agrarian societies would come in the form of gatherers rather than hunters and that they seem to only be a part of northern hemisphere folklore, and he is trying to develop some arguments about how this kind of legend might have traveled over time (even going so far as to speculate on its phylogenetic development).

I must admit that this is all rather new to me, and it is most certainly out of my area of expertise when it comes to the ambition of tracing such legends to their pre-literate – even Paleolithic – origins (something I suspect is a line of argument that would be met with a fair measure of skepticism). I have noted that there is some folklore scholarship on the theme of baskets, particularly with regard to tales about child abandonment. But I'm guessing there's more out there to explore. 

So, I was hoping that some of H-Folk's specialists could point me and him to some scholarship that might help him better refine his thinking on the subject. I'd like to encourage him to consider writing an article on the subject, since he is highly motivated and industrious.
Thanks in advance.

Greg Eghigian

Professor of History

Penn State University