Western Apache Language and Culture: Essays in Linguistic Anthropology

By Keith H. Basso

Book Overview

Seven essays, collected here for the first time, define some of the central concerns of linguistic anthropology through the close study of Western Apache, a language of astonishing complexity. All of the essays have been revised for this anthology. Basso, a major authority in the field of linguistic anthropology, has drawn on fieldwork at the village of Cibecue, whose residents speak a dialect of Western Apache that is spoken nowhere else. He shows how intricacies of language--place names, metaphor, uses of silence--help a people define their very existence, so that, in the words of one Apache woman, "If we lose our language, we will lose our breath; then we will die and blow away like leaves." His essays amply demonstrate that, while Apache language and culture are changing in response to modernization, they remain intricate, vital and unique. These essays illustrate not only the complexity of a particular cultural world as it has emerged to one observer over a protracted period of intensive fieldwork, but also the natural movement from the study of grammatical categories to that of language use and on to the study of the conceptual system underlying it. Each essay addresses a significant theoretical problem; taken together they constitute a microcosm of the anthropological understanding of language.

CONTENTS
The Western Apache Classificatory Verb System: A Semantic Analysis
Semantic Aspects of Linguistic Acculturation
A Western Apache Writing System: The Symbols of Silas John
"Wise Words" of the Western Apache: Metaphor and Semantic Theory
"To Give Up on Words" Silence in Western Apache Culture
"Stalking With Stories" Names, Places, and Moral Narratives among the Western Apache
"Speaking with Names" Language and Landscapes among the Western Apache

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816513236
• ISBN13: 9780816513239
• Release Date: July 1992
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Length: 195 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Buy

I bought this book for an Anthropology class. The syntax is complex and sometimes difficult to understand, but for the subject matter, it's a great buy.

Interpretive Analysis of Western Apache Language and Culture

Author Keith Basso has compiled seven essays over a span of twenty-five years to create a thourough and interpretive look at importance of symbol in Western Apache language and culture. Through his study of Native American language, he adresses several topics including the influencial nature of metaphor and placenames, and the use of silence for the Western Apache.