### *"To Give up on Words" : Silence in Western Apache Culture* --- --- --- --- --- #### Linguistic Anthropology's guided reading #### prepared by Lîm Tîng-iông --- ### **CONTENTS** --- --- #### **I.** INTRO #### **II.** SIX "IT IS RIGHT YO GIVE UP ON WORDS " SITUATIONS #### **III.** HYPOTHESIS OF WESTERN APACHI'S SILENCE #### **IV.** MY OWN EXPERIENCE #### **V.** SOURCE --- ### **INTRO** --- --- - author：Keith H. Basso - published on an academic journal of the University of Chicago Press, which called *Southwestern Journal of Anthropology*(26)3,213-230,in 1970 - presents 16 months of fieldwork from 1967-1969 in Cibecue ---- ### About author #### - **Keith H. Basso (1940–2013)** - American linguistic and cultural anthropologist - finished undergraduate degree at Harvard in 1962, and received PhD from Yale in 1967 - 54 years **ethnography of communication** research at Cibecue (combine linguistic and anthropologist method ) - language and landscape：media of Western Apache people's collective memory and body of knowledge ----  **Keith H. Basso (1940–2013)** source：[AnthroSource](https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/) ---- #### **About ethnography of communication(溝通民族誌)** --- --- * termed by Hymes(1964) * organize the massages is not enough * relationships with others must be carefully considered(Goffman,1963)(Garfinkel,1967) * social statuses as a first input(Gumperz,1967) ---- #### **Cultural landscape of DishchiiʼBikoh (Cibecue)** --- --- * *gowǫ́ǫ́* (camp)：nuclear families * *gotáá* (camp cluster)：at least one member related by matrilineal kinship　 * exogamous clans＞gowǫ́ǫ́＋gotáá ---- ### DishchiiʼBikoh (Cibecue) --- ---  width="600"> #### source：[Phillip Capper](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1091504#/media/File:Cibuque_Fort_Apache_reservation_settlement,_Arizona.jpg) --- ### **SIX "IT IS RIGHT YO GIVE UP ON WORDS " SITUATIONS** --- --- * ***Meeting strangers*** * ***Courting*** * ***Children,coming home*** * ***Getting cussed out*** * ***Being with people who are sad*** * ***Being with someone for whom they sing"*** ---- ### ***Meeting strangers*** ### ***(nda dóhwáá'iłtsééda)*** --- --- * "nda" means unidentified person * geography background and social distance make Western Apache people feel "introducing" two people whom don't know each other is an unnecessary * start communicating casually = "want something" ---- ### ***Courting (líígoláá)*** --- --- --- * silence = modesty * the frequency of conversation is directly to intimacy * hints of sexual relations ---- ### ***Children, coming home*** ### ***(cagase nakaíí)*** --- --- * state of "iltá'ínatsáá (reunion)" * American Indian boarding schools * parents fill like they "don't know them anymore" ---- ### ***Getting cussed out (síłditéé)*** --- --- * people will "forget who they are" when they're in anger * "crazy" and "dangerous",especially when the angry person is drunk * silence = best way to cope ---- ### ***Being with people who are sad*** ### ***(nde dóbiłgózóóda bigǫ́ǫ́)*** --- --- * people means "someone who just return from the mourning period" * explanation 。 speaking is too "heavy" for people in grief 。 a sympathetic conversation will bring opposite consequence 。 grief can strongly change personality (just like "getting cussed out" context) ---- ### ***Being with someone for whom they sing*** ### ***(nde bídádístááha bigǫ́ǫ́)*** --- --- * curing ceremonial * **diyi'**：supernatural powers from the Western Apache universe,those powers can be accessed by humans(Basso,1969) * awe or reverence reason --- ### **HYPOTHESIS OF WESTERN APACHI'S SILENCE** --- --- * verbal behavior is directly related to the participant's psychological state and relationship with others(Basso,1970)(not context) * ambiguity of status (social relationships) ---- ***Relationships's variation is a "light switch" for silence or non.*** --- ### **MY OWN EXPERIENCE** --- --- --- * when you find yourself in disagreement with someone and realize that you can't change their mind * reprimanded by an authority * run into someone you know but never talk with --- ### **SOURCE** --- --- --- * #### [Steven feld. (2014). Keith H. Basso (1940–2013).American Anthropologist,116(2),484–486.](https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.12091) * #### [toponymy of Cibecue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cibecue,_Arizona) --- ### THANKS