Basso, K. H. 1996. Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and language among the Western Apache. Pages 53-90 in K. H. Basso and S. Feld, editors. In Senses of Place. School of American Research, Santa Fe. Publication

Wisdom Sits in Places positions ethnography as an important research tool for understanding how places and their meanings are threaded through indigenous culture and social life. Beginning with the premise that "human existence is irrevocably situated in time and space," Keith Basso emphasizes that ethnographic research can uncover the "different modes of awareness" humans have of their surroundings and be used to explore people's sense of place - the ideas, beliefs, stories and songs  that constitute people's understanding of and anchor them to space and community. To frame his discussion, Basso draws on Martin Heidegger's concept of dwelling, which refers to the multiple lived relationships that people have with places and through which people endow places with meaning. Basso demonstrates the richness of place ethnography using an example from his own ethnographic research documenting Western Apache culture and sense of place in Arizona.