Wisdom Sits in Places, Keith H. Basso
Wisdom Sits in Places, Keith H. Basso
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Wisdom Sits in Places
Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache

Author: Keith H. Basso

Narrator: Steven Jay Cohen

Unabridged: 7 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/28/2018


Synopsis

This remarkable book introduces us to four unforgettable Apache people, each of whom offers a different take on the significance of places in their culture. Apache conceptions of wisdom, manners and morals, and of their own history are inextricably intertwined with place, and by allowing us to overhear his conversations with Apaches on these subjects Basso expands our awareness of what place can mean to people.

Most of us use the term sense of place often and rather carelessly when we think of nature or home or literature. Our senses of place, however, come not only from our individual experiences but also from our cultures. Wisdom Sits in Places, the first sustained study of places and place-names by an anthropologist, explores place, places, and what they mean to a particular group of people, the Western Apache in Arizona. For more than thirty years, Keith Basso has been doing fieldwork among the Western Apache, and now he shares with us what he has learned of Apache place-names—where they come from and what they mean to Apaches.

About Keith H. Basso

Keith Basso is an anthropologist who has done fieldwork among the Western Apache of Arizona for over thirty years.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Richard on March 24, 2015

Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Shell, Safeway, the highway matrix — everyone knows these culturally significant features of our landscape. Less well known are the natural features of the land: the hills, prairies, ponds, and streams. Our landscape watched the mammoths roam, it watched the furious madness of c......more

Goodreads review by Ai on May 27, 2017

Honestly this book (or at least excerpts of it) should be required reading for all historians, the end, thank you, good bye. The opening essay ("Quoting the Ancestors") introduces this idea of "place-making" and is really incredible and guys I cannot stress to you how much you should read this just......more

Goodreads review by Steven on July 23, 2020

A singular book, taking readers into the "landscape of the moral imagination" of the Western Apache people. The wisdom of the ancestors is transmitted through stories that are anchored at places. You are reminded (or you remind others) of places as a source of correction or guidance. The book also c......more

Goodreads review by Alexandra on November 26, 2024

Easiest five stars I've ever given......more

Goodreads review by kait ✍️ on June 22, 2024

3.5 | been having school curriculum withdraws recently so i decided to read this book recommended by my anthropology professor for my minor! took a while to read bc at the start i was like yesss academic texts 😁 and then a couple days later was like academic texts 😐….. this was a good one though imo......more