Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Miscellaneous Basso 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 this that Basso is not unfamiliar with the culture of the Western Apache. And as for when this book was being researched, he had worked there for about eighteen months, spread over a period of five years (Basso 1996:xv). The background of the author is very important because it provides the basis in which the reader will understand the information presented as of the experience and the reasons why the anthropologist wrote such an ethnography. We must also remember that Basso is also a linguist, an anthropologist whose focus is on the language of societies and how different words and contexts convey different meanings. But in Wisdom sits in places, Basso takes on the role of the observer and foreigner when approaching his consultants. (Note: the word consultant is now used instead of informants or subjects because these natives are there to work for the ethnographer, to be consult when questions arise). In a way, Basso is considered as a child when doing the interviews with the retired horsemen because in Apache culture, children are not born with the three conditions of the mind required to learn the wisdom of the culture. The three conditions are: smoothness of them mind, resilience of the mind and steadiness of the mind. Smoothness of the mind conveys the sense of having the mind free of obstructions and to be open to new ideas. The resilience of the mind combats against external distractions while the steadiness of the mind combats against the internal factors of distraction. Instead, they must pay attention and observe the words and actions of older people (in Basso's case, the retired horsemen who are also his consultants) to emulate the 'wisdom of the ancestors'. (Basso 1996:133). Thus the structure of the ethnography is focused as having Basso as a child, taking in the stories of the place-names. His note taking and field notes contain the stories of how place-names are created and how they are to be interpreted by the listener as more than just a folk tale. There are four chapters in total and each chapter is approximately thirty pages. The benefit of having short chapters with individual titles is that they entice the reader as if they were reading individual short stories. The illustrations of the places named in the book are also helpful because it aids the reader in understanding the topography in relation to the name of the place. For example, the pictures of 'Water flows Inward Under A Cottonwood Tree' (Basso 1996:86) allow the reader to get a sense of the place and to actually see the water flowing around the cottonwood tree as if flowing under it. The ethnographic research methods used by Basso include participant-observation. Participant-observant involves the ethnographer as the participant and in order to fully understand the culture he or she is studying, he must stay for an average of one year with the indigenous people he is studying and must learn their language and live their lifestyle. Basso frequented at his consultant's house and lived their lifestyle while learning the basic language. As we first approach the topic of language, we must remember that Basso is a linguist and his ability to learn the Apache language is fastened by the aid of his English-speaking consultants and interpreter. At the beginning of the book, in chapter one, Basso attempts to learn about a place called 'Water Lies With Mud In An Open Container' but at first he is unsuccessful in learning the history because he does not say the name correctly. His consultants refuse to teach Basso about the history of a place unless he is successful in pronouncing the correct sounds of the name because according to the Apache, it is disrespectful to the ancestors who had named the place. In Apache culture, by saying the place-name, Basso was repeating the speech of their ancestors and unless it was expressed correctly, it was deemed as offensive (Basso 1996:10). This section came as a surprise to me because I had never thought of repeating a place-name as repeating the speech of an ancestor who had named the place. It seemed insensitive of Basso to have said "I'll work on it later, it's in the machine. It doesn't matter," but according to Charles, the consultant, "It's matter."(Basso 1996:10). The emphasis on this quote is that instead of the usual slang "It matters", the consultant Charles says, "It is matter", therefore emphasizing on the importance of the subject. It might have seen as insensitive on the part of Basso but he does attempt at the end and successfully pronounce 'Water Lies With Mud In An Open Container' in the Apache language and thus Charles tells the etymology of how the name was derived. Another ethnographic method used by Basso was that he kept a holistic perspective throughout the entire investigation. The holistic perspective is a fundamental principle of anthropology in which all aspects of the society was to be viewed in the broadest context, in order to understand their interconnections and interdependence (Haviland 1994:14). Although the author does concentrate on the geography and linguistic aspect of the Apache culture, he does look at gender issues, ceremonial activities and the symbolic representations of stories. Basso describes the importance of women in the Apache society on page 21, "Groups of people named themselves for the places where their women first planted corn. That is why our lines [clans] go through women. That is why we belong to the line of our mother. We are of our mother's line and for the line of our father. It has always been that way." (Basso 1996:21) As we have learned from these lines, women in the Western Apache culture represent life, because it is the women who have planted the corn for the people to live on. Corn in Apache culture is one of the biggest and most important crops; this is presented to us in the story of 'Shades of Shit' on page 24. 'Shades of Shit' also teach a moral story of how people should share and not be selfish because goodness shall be repaid but selfishness will result in retaliation of your own faults. Many stories of place-names also teach how people should behave and what is accepted and what is seen as shame. As described by Basso on page 31, " what matters most to Apaches is where events occurred, not when, and what they serve to reveal about the development and character of Apache social life." There are four types of stories; they include myth, historical tale, saga and gossip. Each serve its own purpose, with myths used to enlighten and instruct; historical tales used to criticize and warn the listener of consequences if they violate Apache standards for acceptable behaviour; sagas entertain and gossip is to inform of current local events. Now looking back at the themes of the book, we must not forget the oral history and how it relates to the geography. Stories of Apache locations relate to the past but are told in the present tense. The most important aspect of these historical tales is that they are to be performed and dramatized, as a form of narrative art (Basso 1996:33). This is to keep the listener intrigued and interested, thus the storytellers becomes a 'hunter' and the listener is 'shot' by the arrow (the story). But why is everything spoken and not written? The Apache conception of language and thought are all cast in visual terms, therefore 'speaking' is to provoke 'thinking' and 'thinking' is done with 'pictures' inside the mind. By these 'pictures', the listener is able to 'see' the moral behind the story as if through the eyes of the storyteller. Conversation is done mentally with 'pictures' being exchanged by the participating speakers. (Basso 1996:84). The selection of words used by the speakers is also of great importance. One cannot speak too much and provide too many details because that would just disarray the whole idea of creating pictures in the mind. An effective narrator would speak just the right amount of words to evoke thinking in his listeners, thus encouraging the active process of imagination and the practice of relating simple words and definitions to the situation. Just as creative writing is able to open up the thoughts of the reader and allow them to imagine the details of the story, creative and effective narrative completes the same purpose. The selection of words used by Western Apaches often include place-names, this is because each place-name has its own history and moral story. So when a person is given a place name by a conversing partner, the person will "…went to those places, standing in front of them as our ancestors did long ago. That way she could see what happened there long ago. She could hear stories in her mind, perhaps hear our ancestors speaking. She could recall the knowledge of our ancestors." The importance of speaking with place-names is explored in its entirety in Chapter three of the book, with the title of the chapter being 'Speaking With Names'. It is in this chapter where we learn the importance of names and how they are successful in accomplishing the following tasks: " (1) Produce a mental image of a particular geographical location; (2) Evoke prior texts, such as historical tales and sagas; (3) Affirm the value and validity of traditional moral precepts; (4) Display tactful and courteous attention to aspects of both positive and negative face; (5) Convey sentiments of charitable concern and personal support; (6) offer practical advice for dealing with disturbing personal circumstances and (7) to heal wounded spirits. " (Basso 1996:100) Each name is able to accomplish all of the actions above, therefore a name can act as a mentor and a guide to the younger generation of Apaches as they enter adulthood. Because each name is related to a specific physical space, each story will be reminded to the listener as they pass each place and remember the story behind it. As in the example of the girl who attended a ceremonial practice with her hair in curlers, each time that she passes through the place, she will be reminded of the time she had offended Apache norms. This is very much like a historical tale because it will warn others of the embarrassment it had caused the girl for life. As we have seen from this example, place-names for the Apache are very important convey important messages for the next generation to learn what is accepted in Apache norms. Apache culture is still very involved with three aspects, the people, the land and the language. The three are closely connected because the people depend on the language of the land to convey important historical memories and to learn wisdom from. Although wisdom was a big theme in the book, there 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 Word Count: 2234
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