Wisdom Sits in Places

Author: Keith H. Basso
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 0826327052
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 189

Book Description
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. "This is indeed a brilliant exposition of landscape and language in the world of the Western Apache. But it is more than that. Keith Basso gives us to understand something about the sacred and indivisible nature of words and place. And this is a universal equation, a balance in the universe. Place may be the first of all concepts; it may be the oldest of all words."--N. Scott Momaday "In Wisdom Sits in Places Keith Basso lifts a veil on the most elemental poetry of human experience, which is the naming of the world. In so doing he invests his scholarship with that rarest of scholarly qualities: a sense of spiritual exploration. Through his clear eyes we glimpse the spirit of a remarkable people and their land, and when we look away, we see our own world afresh."--William deBuys "A very exciting book--authoritative, fully informed, extremely thoughtful, and also engagingly written and a joy to read. Guiding us vividly among the landscapes and related story-tellings of the Western Apache, Basso explores in a highly readable way the role of language in the complex but compelling theme of a people's attachment to place. An important book by an eminent scholar."--Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.

Portraits of 'the Whiteman'

Author: Keith H. Basso
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521295932
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 146

Book Description
Drawing on current theory in symbolic anthropology and sociolinguistics, this interpretive essay investigates a complex form of joking based on material collected in a Western Apache community wherein Apaches stage carefully crafted imitations of Anglo-Americans.

Senses of Place

Author: Steven Feld
Publisher: James Currey
ISBN: 9780852559000
Category : Geographical perception
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Book Description
The articles collected here consider the construction of place in both a physical and conceptual sense. They discuss how places are created by, and help to create, the people who live in them.

The Aztec Kings

Author: Susan D. Gillespie
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816534780
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317

Book Description
Winner of the Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Book Award from the American Society for Ethnohistory, The Aztec Kings is the first major study to take into account the Aztec cyclical conception of time and treat indigenous historical traditions as symbolic statements in narrative form. Susan D. Gillespie focuses on the dynastic history of the Mexica of Tenochtitlan. By demonstrating that most of Aztec history is nonliteral, she sheds new light on Aztec culture and on the function of history in society. By relating the cyclical structure of Aztec dynastic history to similar traditions of African and Polynesian peoples, she introduces a broader perspective on the function of history in society and on how and why history must change.

Don't Let the Sun Step Over You

Author: Eva Tulene Watt
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816523916
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Book Description
When the Apache wars ended in the late nineteenth century, a harsh and harrowing time began for the Western Apache people. Living under the authority of nervous Indian agents, pitiless government-school officials, and menacing mounted police, they knew that resistance to American authority would be foolish. But some Apache families did resist in the most basic way they could: they resolved to endure. Although Apache history has inspired numerous works by non-Indian authors, Apache people themselves have been reluctant to comment at length on their own past. Eva Tulene Watt, born in 1913, now shares the story of her family from the time of the Apache wars to the modern era. Her narrative presents a view of history that differs fundamentally from conventional approaches, which have almost nothing to say about the daily lives of Apache men and women, their values and social practices, and the singular abilities that enabled them to survive. In a voice that is spare, factual, and unflinchingly direct, Mrs. Watt reveals how the Western Apaches carried on in the face of poverty, hardship, and disease. Her interpretation of her peopleÕs past is a diverse assemblage of recounted events, biographical sketches, and cultural descriptions that bring to life a vanished time and the men and women who lived it to the fullest. We share her and her familyÕs travels and troubles. We learn how the Apache people struggled daily to find work, shelter, food, health, laughter, solace, and everything else that people in any community seek. Richly illustrated with more than 50 photographs, DonÕt Let the Sun Step Over You is a rare and remarkable book that affords a view of the past that few have seen beforeÑa wholly Apache view, unsettling yet uplifting, which weighs upon the mind and educates the heart.

The Little Red Book of Wisdom

Author: Mark DeMoss
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc
ISBN: 1595553541
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
DeMoss gathers insights for living wisely from history, Scripture, and a lifetime of listening. The result is a handy, accessible book that gives readers a new way to enjoy lasting success in the work world and beyond.

An Introduction to Native North America -- Pearson eText

Author:
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317347218
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 407

Book Description
An Introduction to Native North America provides a basic introduction to the native peoples of North America, including both the United States and Canada. It covers the history of research, basic prehistory, the European invasion and the impact of Europeans on Native cultures. Additionally, much of the book is written from the perspective of the ethnographic present, and the various cultures are described as they were at the specific times noted in the text.

Life Lived Like a Story

Author: Julie Cruikshank
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 9780774804134
Category : Athapascan Indians
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Book Description
"There is pure gold here for those who want to understand the rules of the old ways. ... [The book] has a convincing sureness, an intensity which cannot be denied, a strong sense of family. ... Candidly, and often with sly humour, the three women discuss early white-Indian relations, the Klondike gold rush, the epidemics, the starvation, the healthy and wealthy times, and building of the Alaska Highway. ... Integrity is here, and wisdom. There is no doubting the authenticity of the voices. As women, they had power and they used it wisely, and through their words and Cruikshank's skills, you will change your mind if you think the anthropological approach to oral history can only be dull."--Barry Broadfoot, Toronto Globe and Mail.

The Wisdom of the Native Americans

Author: Kent Nerburn
Publisher: New World Library
ISBN: 157731297X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Book Description
The teachings of the Native Americans provide a connection with the land, the environment, and the simple beauties of life. This collection of writings from revered Native Americans offers timeless, meaningful lessons on living and learning. Taken from writings, orations, and recorded observations of life, this book selects the best of Native American wisdom and distills it to its essence in short, digestible quotes — perhaps even more timely now than when they were first written. In addition to the short passages, this edition includes the complete Soul of an Indian, as well as other writings by Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman), one of the great interpreters of American Indian thought, and three great speeches by Chiefs Joseph, Seattle, and Red Jacket.

Western Apache Witchcraft

Author: Keith H. Basso
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 9780816501427
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 86

Book Description
An ethnographic contribution describing the beliefs and ideas associated with witchcraft as shared "knowledge" that the Apaches have about their universe. Uncovers the types of interpersonal relationships with which witchcraft accusations are regularly associated and posits explanations for these associations.