Reflect on Wisdom Sits in Places (Basso 1996). Keith Basso (1940-2013) was one of the most respected cultural and linguistic anthropologists in the field of anthropology and among the Western Apache, with whom he devoted his entire career. Basso’s work and the contributions of his informants throughout their lives are considered by many to be high water marks in American Indian studies and American anthropology. This final outside reading for the course is widely considered to be a seminal work not only in anthropology, but in social sciences. Basso’s work was deeply influenced by the works of Victor Turner and Clifford Geertz, both revolutionizing the anthropological study of ritual life, symbolism, and rites of passage.
Consider Basso’s aims, his questions, that he set out with. He was originally asked to create a map of Native placenames, which set him off on this journey.
Basso starts with the question of “What do people make of place?” This, of course, is not a simple answer, but one that spans time and place and is reflected throughout the landscape and narratives of the Western Apache. So you go there. What do people make of place?
Discuss the lessons learned through the landscape narratives that followed. Choose one or two to focus on and to illustrate Basso’s points and lessons. Provide in-text citations with page numbers to direct your reader.
Basso later asks “what is wisdom?” What did Basso learn from his informants as to what wisdom is and how it is gleaned from the landscape?
Reflect in general on the book and its lessons. What parts stood out to you and particularly meaningful or striking? Did you have a favorite story or anecdote from the experience? Feel free to take your discussion wherever you want in the Southwest and landscape narratives of Native North Americans once you’ve addressed the points above
