Wisdom Sits in Places (Basso)

- Apache conceptions of a place embody wisdom, morality, politeness, and tact - Landscape is a reference point for affirming notions of personhood and social affiliation - The entire landscape is culturally fashioned and alive, filled with locations that evoke stories of the ancestors and allow people to come to know how to act in the contemporary world

- Through their place names - Names for things describe, distinguish, and distill important information

Place names provide an unique window on the world without which we would literally be disoriented

1) As much as anything, Basso's book is about the transformative power of landscape 2) "...persons and whole communities render their places meaningful and endow them with social importance." 3) "Long before the advent of literacy [ ] Places served humankind as durable symbol of distant events." 4) Names of features in the landscape are used virtually every day in order to direct people to the best hunting, water, etc., a practice Apache call "speaking with names"

That places and oral traditions are important to them