Nationality United States Name Keith Basso | Role Anthropologist Education Harvard University | |
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Born March 15, 1940
Asheville, North Carolina ( 1940-03-15 ) Institutions University of New Mexico, University of Arizona, Yale University Alma mater Harvard University (B.A., 1962), Stanford University (Ph.D., 1967) Thesis Heavy with Hatred: An Ethnographic Study of Western Apache Witchcraft (1967) Known for Study of language and place names of Western Apache Notable awards Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing, 1997 Died August 4, 2013, Phoenix, Arizona, United States Fields Anthropology, Linguistics, Native American studies, Linguistic anthropology Books Wisdom Sits in Places, Portraits of 'the Whitema, The Cibecue Apache, Western Apache language, Western Apache Witchcraft | ||
Keith Hamilton Basso (March 15, 1940 – August 4, 2013) was a cultural and linguistic anthropologist noted for his study of the Western Apaches, specifically those from the community of Cibecue, Arizona. Basso was professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of New Mexico and earlier taught at the University of Arizona and Yale University.
After first studying Apache culture in 1959, Basso completed a bachelor's degree at Harvard University (B.A., 1962) and then took the doctorate at Stanford University (Ph.D., 1967). He was the son of novelist Hamilton Basso.
Basso was awarded the Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing in 1997 for his ethnography, 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.
Basso died from cancer on August 4, 2013, at the age of 73, in Phoenix, Arizona.