Keith H. Basso It is rare to find a book that is as informative as a textbook but reads as easy as a short story. But Keith H. Basso is successful in creating an interesting ethnography about the Western Apache culture by using two usually overlooked topics, geography and oral history. Geography and the location of places is usually forgotten or seen as just topography, but Basso proves that geography is more than a location. It is the forgotten history of the name of a place that makes the locality more important than it seems. While whitemen (a term frequented by the Apache to describe White European culture) has constantly renamed places for convenience and prove of colonization, Basso overturns this ignorant and offensive practice and attempts to understand and map the geography of Western Apache by using the original place-names. Therefore this paper will be an attempt to explore the "sense [sic] of place as a partake of cultures, of shared bodies of 'local knowledge' with which whole communities render their places meaningful and endow them with social importance" (Basso 1996:xiv). And from Basso's detailed accounts of interacting with the natives of Western Apache, I will also attempt to demonstrate the importance of spoken (oral) language in relating and learning about ancestral history. As we have sorted out the themes of this book, we can then look at how the book is structured and why I have acclaimed it to be informative and yet so easy to read and understand. At the beginning of the book, we learn that Basso had first traveled to Cibecue in the summer of 1959 as a nineteen-year-old college student but then returned numerous times after his graduate studies was done (Basso 1996:xiv). We can conclude from th... ... middle of paper ... ... is not enough space to discuss the importance of wisdom and how it is interrelated with the themes of land and language. But the main focus of wisdom is that one must have smoothness, resilience and steadiness of the mind. These three traits must be cultivated by acquiring relevant bodies of language and to apply them critically to the workings of ones mind (Basso 1996:130). Wisdom sits in places and at each place, we learn more about the culture and ourselves. The language is a teaching tool of the culture for a new generation of Apache natives and from Basso's book, we as readers have also learned the importance of place-names and how it affects our sense of self. Bibliography: Basso, Keith H. 1996 Wisdom Sits in Places. Albuquerque :University of New Mexico Press Haviland, William A. 1994 Anthropology. Texas : Harcourt Brace College Publishers
Pages one to sixty- nine in Indian From The Inside: Native American Philosophy and Cultural Renewal by Dennis McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb, provides the beginning of an in-depth analysis of Native American cultural philosophy. It also states the ways in which western perspective has played a role in our understanding of Native American culture and similarities between Western culture and Native American culture. The section of reading can be divided into three lenses. The first section focus is on the theoretical understanding of self in respect to the space around us. The second section provides a historical background into the relationship between Native Americans and British colonial power. The last section focus is on the affiliation of otherworldliness that exist between
Leslie Marmon Silko, Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination, A Sense of Place, Forbes Custom Publishing 1999
Raibmon’s book focuses on stories of the people of the Northwest Coast in late nineteenth century United States and Canada. She has two main reasons for doing so. The first is because the area was the focus of much of the work being done by early American anthropology. Early Anthropology was focused on preserving as much as possible of the “vanishing Indian.” By doing so they provided copious examples of what “authentic” Indians should look like with photographs as well as artifacts of “traditional” Indian culture. Raibmon’s second reason for placing the focus of her book here because there were big political changes in the area at that same time. ...
When I read Wisdom Sits in Places I could sense the importance of place-names through the words of the Apache people’s stories. Events that took place many years ago in specific areas reiterate the morals and beliefs the Apache people hold near to them. To say that they are anything but important to Apache history and culture would be a mistake.
“Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective” an essay written by Leslie Marmon Silko brings to life the diversified facets of the Pueblo Indian culture, sharing with readers the infrastructure of Puebloan dialect and folklore. Likewise, Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue” details a series of prominent reflections of the nurturing voice responsible for constructing the author’s perceptions of the world. Both of these essays share a corresponding theme of the influence one’s culture can have on can have on individual styles of communication. The implication of the nonfiction elements plot and setting throughout the piece allows the author to adequately reinforce the theme of each piece. Each essay embodies commonalities, as well as, differences in the nonfiction elements used to depict the common theme.
Basso, Keith. 1979. Portraits of “The Whiteman:” Linguistic play and cultural symbols among the Western Apache. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. First half.
The objective of this article is to inform the reader about the Apalachee Indians interaction with the French, English, and Spanish forces, as well to show the lifestyle of the Apalachee Indians, in which he uses mainly primary resources for his article. One of the many conflicts stated in this article started with the Spanish disapproval of some of the Apalachee customs like “Tribal dancing featuring scalps taken in raids” (Covington, 1972) and also the act of scalping were outlawed by the village council, in which causes a revolt that turned out unsuccessful for the Indians. Therefor the Spanish punishes all the Apalachee men as well all the ones that were loyal to the Spanish by forcing them to contribute in labor which “was hard work
The Contemporary Issues in Native American Culture provides a lot of varied topics and interests. In this paper, the main issue will be the topic of tribal language preservation. How tribes are able to raise money to enhance language efforts, how tribes are working to preserve the language, and how tribes are using language to maintain cultural awareness and identity will be discussed.
Basso’s carries out his research in a Western Apache community situated in east-central Arizona in Navajo County. He conducts the research over a period of sixteen months between 1964 and 1969. Basso specifically observes specifically a settlement called ‘Cibecue’ that he regards as a small community of about 800 people. The society is largely agrarian; agriculture, rearing cattle, and doing some work for wages are the common outlets of earning. Basso notes the high unemployment rate in the community, a factor that still affects the Cibecue society; therefore, many of the community’s residents live in substandard conditions and rely on government subsidies and welfare checks.
Keith Hamilton Basso was a cultural and linguistic Anthropologist who studied the Western Apache in Arizona, more specifically a place called Cibecue. In his essay Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language among the Western Apache, he traveled with his Apache companions Charles Henry; who he describes as a veteran maker of place-worlds, and Charles' cousin, Morley Cromwell. Together their objective was to record topographic maps of the aproximate location of each and every place that bears and Apache name within a twenty-mile radius of the Cibecue community. Upon Basso's travels he learns much about how the Apache outline their model of place, Basso reffers to the Apache place-making as a form of narrative art. Mainly through story, Charles
In the essay “The Way to Rainy Mountain” by N. Scott Momaday, honors the Kiowa culture and describes its traditions.The author employs a wistful tone, to convey his expression towards the lost of his heritage. Through the use of rhetorical devices, the author conveys his thesis precisely. Diction also plays a vital role in expressing tone. N. Scott Momaday in his reminiscence demonstrates nostalgic longing for a time that cannot be salvaged and is gone forever. The author reminds us of lost tribes, lost religions and lost hope as well as how important a person's heritage is to them.
This documentary talks about the land of the Native Americans and the economical, political, and cultural effects that caused their deprivation of religious freedom. This documentary also introduces three different stories that show how white Americans play a role in stripping the Native’s land away for lucrative and recreational purposes. This involve the Lakato’s Devils Tower, the Hopi’s Colorado Plateau, and the Wintu’s Mount Shasta who all struggle for the right to practice their religion in their sacred land that they originated from long ago. The idea of not allowing these indigenous communities from practicing their right of the First Amendment essentially prevents them from connecting the natural world with
Virgin Land: The American West As Symbol and Myth, by Henry Nash Smith is a very interesting book and it’s not your typical history book. It is an critical analysis of how Americans view the western expansion through the myths, legends, and symbolic culture that’s associated with it. Smith delves into the topic of what the West and the frontier meant to the American public. This is not a book which discusses established history but a book about what people believe is true about the American past. This analysis of the American Western experience is important to American historiographical research. Henry Nash Smith gives those interested in exploring the symbology and mythology of the West and the American experience a place to start.
When I read Wisdom Sits in Places I could feel the importance of place-names through the words of the Apache peoples stories. Events that took place many years ago in a specific areas reiterate the morals and beliefs the Apache people hold near to them. To say that they are anything but relevant to Apache history and culture would be a mistake.
Momaday forces upon the reader the idea of language as a remedy for sickness; not only of the mind, but of the heart, also. If a speaker can reach a listener and show the listener what she means, then that is the most honorable achievement. Momaday wants the reader to know the importance of word weaving, of weaving the words to form a beautiful picture that can heal souls if spoken correctly. Momaday believes that the Native Americans who never bothered to learn to read and write, those who depend on their words, are those whose words are most powerful. The love for words, spoken with passion, makes them take on a three-dimensional quality. The words become the images and show a listener instead of telling, making the moment an experience instead of just a moment. The listener can feel what the speaker is trying to say; there is no need for interpretation, everything is already understood. Momaday convinces the reader that the spoken language goes beyond what words are being said; the words become their meaning, transcend into complete understanding and clarity. The experience should be remembered as one of self-revelation and understanding, not a moment filled with monotonous words. Momaday does not think it should be about memorizing the words for intellect, but about seeing the image they create. He wants the reader to know how important the woven web of words is so that the reader is able to understand how Native American tradition has lasted so long without words being written; that it is not the remembrance of words, but the remembranc...