Wisdom Sits in Places

Keith Basso (1940-2013) was an American academic who focused his career on anthropological studies of American Indians, particularly the Western Apache community of Cibecue, in east-central Arizona. In 1959, while in his sophomore year of his undergraduate degree program, Basso started working among the Western Apache, initiating a relationship that would lead to many works of research, of which Wisdom Sits in Places is one of the best-known examples.

In addition to being the author of the book, Basso is essentially its protagonist. Although he wrote the book after having spent nearly two decades conducting fieldwork in Cibecue, Basso is still frequently bewildered by the cultural practices he observes. At several points throughout the book, Basso witnesses an exchange between Western Apache and comes away confused. The frankness with which Basso explains his lack of familiarity with aspects of Apache culture allows him to stand in for the reader—both Basso and the reader are learning about Apache cultural practices as he encounters them.

In discussing instances in which he found himself in uncharted territory, anthropologically speaking, Basso is also underscoring another important dimension of his identity: that of ethnographer. Anthropologists, like Basso himself, can often only fully learn about ideas and practices through sustained ethnographic research—a task Basso embraces with obvious delight.