There is a deep connection between the environment and Western Apache people. The connection between the two is so strong that it's embedded in their culture and history. Keith Basso is the author of wisdom Sits in Places, expanded on this theory by divulging himself into Western Apaches life. He spent many years living with the Apache people learning their relationship with the environment, specifically focused on ‘Place names. After Basso first began to work with the Apache people, one of his Apache friends told him to ‘learn the names, ‘because they held a specific meaning with the community. Place-names are special names given to a specific area where an event took place that was significant in history and crucial in shaping morals and beliefs. Through environment of place-names, the surroundings became a teaching tool for Apache people.
Basso describes ‘place-names’ as a “universal tool of the historical imagination and in some societies, if not the good majority, it's sure enough among the basic of all.” The Apache people link places with events that have taken place in history. Basso describes several of those place-names in his book and every of the stories tell a tale of history and morality in reference to the environment. I found it very fascinating that no dates were connected to the stories. i think this is because time frames deduct from the meaning of the story. Old narratives, in a sense, decrease important because we think of them as old and out-dated.
The Apache people gave places-names in order to notify people of their past, also to show respect for the land in which they lived on for so many years. Charles Henry, is a friend of Bassos and Apache informant, explain his ancestors naming process, “this place ma...
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... in their history and although it was never on a conventional map, it remained tremendously important to the Apache heritage.
In Apache culture, Basso theorizes that there is a bond between oral narratives and the environment. He claims that story telling is a very influential tool used by the Apache people and it is used to “create bonds between human beings and features of the landscape. Bassos, as well as a number of Apache elders, believed that the disconnection among the land and people is the reason of many problems.
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.
Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi, by Timothy R. Pauketat, is on the history, society, and religious customs of the Cahokian people. Consisting of twelve chapters, each chapter deals with a different aspect of Cahokian society. Chapter one opens up by telling the reader how the stars in the sky played an important role in the Native American belief system. The Planet Venus was the key figure in all of this, in fact the ancient Maya believed Venus to be a god. According to the Cahokians , Venus had a dual nature, in the daytime Venus was viewed a masculine, and in the evening it was seen as feminine. In the same chapter, Pauketat lets us know about the discovery of, two hundred packed-earth mounds constructed in a five-square mile zone represented the belief systems of the Cahokian people. Historical archeology was the main reason for the discovery of two hundred earth packed mounds. At its peak, Cahokia had a population of over ten thousand, not including the people who lived in the towns surrounding the city. By the time the 1800s came around, the European Americans had already been living in North America for some time; however, many Europeans refused to acknowledge the Native American role in building these ancient mounds. Instead, they believed the mounds to been built by a race of non-Indians. Due to the preservation of Cahokia within a state park and modern highway system, many things became lost. Since many things became lost, very few archaeologists have a good understanding of Cahokia. While there may be a loss of a complete picture, archaeologists are still making progress with numerous discoveries. These discoveries bring into question long-held beliefs such as a people who were peaceful an...
“There is one Acoma. It is a class by itself. The peer of it is not in the world…The longest visit never wears out its glamour: one feels as in a strange, sweet, unearthly dream, whose very rocks are genii, and whose people swart conjurors. It is the spendthrift of beauty”-Lummis, 1983 (James 18). Acoma was a beautiful, strong village, drawing many people to it, even though they were usually unwelcome. “From the very outset Acoma excited the curiosity and even the fear of pioneers because of the strangeness of its position and the reputation of its inhabitants for ferocity” (Sedgwick preface). Although Acoma had such a reputation, it did not stop Don Juan de Onate from taking over such a magnificent place. Once Onate gained control, the Acoma reputation vanished and all lives of the Acoma Indians changed politically, economically, and especially socially.
Philippi is not a working city, and as a result, the significance of what happened here is more important than what can actually be seen.? Therefore, a clear grasp of past events is essential toward appreciating the importance of the land.
The Plains region extends from south Canada into modern-day Mexico and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. The relatively large area hosts many Native American tribes, which includes the Comanche, Kiowa, and Pawnee just to name a few. One of the biggest events and aspects of Plains region culture is what is known as the Powwow. This event is what makes this region unique and will be the main focus of this part of the essay.
Blij has clearly put this book into historical significance by mentioning the idea of geography and how it plays a role in societies all over the world. However, the five themes of culture regions, cultural diffusion, cultural interaction, cultural ecology, and cultural landscapes are all clearly defined within a specific context to a particular nation. Through reading this intriguing piece of literature I received the underlying notion that Blij firmly believes that landscapes of the world realm are not going to change. De Blij worldview of regions, diffusion, interaction, ecology, and landscapes has allowed him to simultaneously link issues together from the United States all the way to Southeast Asia.
There seems to be a central theme to Sears’ book, Momaday’s book, and the various films we have reviewed, that there are old stories told about all of these "sacred places" that show us how to understand, care for, preserve, and protect the land around them. There are two aspects that stem from this main theme: that the words of these stories are traditional and sacred, and that people value different parts of the land in different ways. Some cultures value land as a worshiping center while others use it merely for entertainment and recreation. A problem comes into play when the culture’s views clash and the people don’t respect each other’s customs. When people don’t understand native’s points of view, they don’t understand how important their values are either.
which helped them to grow crops and gather berries. As the years went on the Apache hunters
Such stories and their settings establish the Native American presence on this land from time immemorial by relating how the Creator placed the First Peoples in their traditional homelands. Homelands are stable and permanent cultural and physical landscapes where Native nations have lived, and in some cases, continue to live to the present day. (Handsman 13). Creation stories thus reflect the central place their relationship with the land occupies in the culture and hi...
When the name Oklahoma is mentioned, there are certain things that come to the minds of many people and one of those things are Native Americans. Native Americans and Oklahoma share a special bond that neither one of them ever thought would come into fruition. This special bond between Native Americans and Oklahoma is something that started with great hesitance but has blossomed into something great. During this paper, the evolution of this relationship between Native Americans and Oklahoma will be discussed. Oklahomans and Native Americans share a mutual respect relationship that has blossomed very much so.
Throughout my life, I've heard many different stories about my family. Because of these stories, I know about my background, and they have helped form my identity. Randall Bass, professor of English at Georgetown University, agrees that stories help shape people's identities. Bass states that, "Individuals derive their sense of identity from their culture, and cultures are systems of belief that determine how people live their lives" (Bass 1). Cultural stories about family history, religion, nationality, and heritage help influence people's behavior and beliefs. Identities of different people come from their cultures. Story telling begins at home. Stories help connect people to their systems of beliefs. They sculpt people's lives by giving them a model of how to live. People receive their earliest knowledge from different stories.(Bass)
There is a deep relationship between the environment and Western Apache people. The bonds between the two are so strong that it is embedded in their culture and history. Keith Basso, author of Wisdom Sits in Places expanded on this theory and did so by divulging himself into Western Apaches life. He spent fifteen years with the Apache people studying their relationship with the environment, specifically concentrating on ‘Place-names.’ When Basso first began to work with the Apache people, one of his Apache friends told him to ‘learn the names,’ because they held a special meaning with the community. (Cruikshank 1990: 54) Place-names are special names given to a specific locality where an event took place that was significant in history and crucial in shaping morals and beliefs. Through the use of place-names, the environment became a teaching tool for Apache people.
...she refutes this with strong counterarguments about the changes that has happened to Fox Hill; thus the need to view the village not as the marker of Bahamian identity but as this malleable, fluid source of “Bahamianness” that is free from stagnation. When Bethel discusses the Pierce Lewis Theory of Monuments she introduces this argument of monuments amping the reader to think that the marker of the ideal Bahamian national identity is in Rawson's Square. However, after Bethel attributes the un-relatable nature of this argument to the Bahamian context any hopes of monuments being the cornerstone of national identity was washed away. This style of writing is very effective because what it does is introduce what the reader may be thinking and then logically proves why this viewpoint is wrong. As a result, allowing the reader to see that only her viewpoint makes sense.
There are many similarities between The Namesake and “Interpreter of Maladies.” In both of these, an identity crisis is faced. In The Namesake, Gogol faces identity crises by rejecting his unusual name. “The family looked Indian but dressed as foreigners did, the children in stiff, brightly colored clothing and caps with translucent visors.”(Lahiri44) In “Interpreter of Maladies” the family faced an identity crisis trying to merge their American identity with their Indian identity. Even though they could have dressed like Indians in India, they didn’t. They dressed as they would in America and stood out. Both “Interpreter of Maldies” and The Namesake are related to the second generation Indian-Americans, along with Jhumpa Lahiri herself.
George McKeller was the very first person to settle in the land that is now Arcadia, as stated in A View of the Valley. Not many people are aware that George was the first settler of present day Arcadia. I...
Hirsch, E. 1995. “Introduction, Landscape: between place and space” in Hirsch, E. (ed.) The Anthropology of Landscape: Perspectives on Place and Space. Oxford : New York: Clarendon Press.