Perspective

Keith Basso is currently employed as a cultural anthropologist at the University of New Mexico, having worked at the University of Arizona before. Basso brings a thoroughgoing anthropological style to the text. However, he is critical of the emphases of his field. When Basso was doing his research on the Western Apache, issues concerning the intersection of language, culture and place had fallen into relative obscurity. Few were working on it and many didn't see much need to study it. Basso argues that the Western Apache culture cannot be fully understood without studying the connection between their language and their geography. Place names play a complex role in their society, ones that Basso reveals in some detail throughout the book.

Basso is fairly ecumenical in his perspective, not limiting himself to the perspective of anthropology. He brings the insights of sociologists, philosophers and others to bear on his...