Keith Hamilton Basso is a cultural

Cultural anthropology

Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...

 and linguistic

Linguistic anthropology

Linguistic anthropology is the interdisciplinary study of how language influences social life. It is a branch of anthropology that originated from the endeavor to document endangered languages, and has grown over the past 100 years to encompass almost any aspect of language structure and...

 anthropologist

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 noted for his study of the Western Apache

Western Apache

Western Apache refers to the Apache peoples living today primarily in east central Arizona. Most live within reservations. The White Mountain Apache of the Fort Apache, San Carlos, Yavapai-Apache, Tonto Apache, and the Fort McDowell Mohave-Apache Indian reservations are home to the majority of...

s (specifically those from the community of Cibecue, Arizona

Cibecue, Arizona

Cibecue is a census-designated place in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,331 at the 2000 census.The current council leaders are Arnold Beach Sr...

) since 1959. He currently teaches anthropology at the University of New Mexico

University of New Mexico

The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...

. He is the son of novelist Hamilton Basso

Hamilton Basso

Joseph Hamilton Basso was an American novelist and journalist.Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Basso worked as reporter for several newspapers in New Orleans, wrote 11 novels, primarily about the South and was an associate editor at The New Yorker for more than 20 years...

.

Basso was awarded the Victor Turner

Victor Turner

Victor Witter Turner was a British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals and rites of passage...

 Prize for Ethnographic Writing in 1997 for his ethnography

Ethnography

Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...

, Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache. The work was also the 1996 Western States Book Award Winner in Creative Nonfiction.

Select bibliography

• Meaning in Anthropology (1976)
• Portraits of 'the Whiteman' : Linguistic Play and Cultural Symbols among the Western Apache (1979)
• The Cibecue Apache (1986)
• Western Apache Language and Culture: Essays in Linguistic Anthropology (1992)
• Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache (1996)
• Senses of Place (1996)

External links

• Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing Winners, 1997