Western Apache Language and Culture: Essays in Linguistic Anthropology

Kluckhohn's Observation

Clyde Kluckhohn noted that the most interesting claims are those people make about themselves, which cultural anthropologists should consider during fieldwork.

Ethnographic Research

Ethnography involves attending to claims people make about themselves to understand who they imagine themselves to be. This is a valuable and arresting activity.

Western Apache Claims

This essay focuses on spoken texts in which members of a contemporary American Indian society express claims about themselves, their language, and the lands they live on. These claims are made by men and women from Cibecue. Examples include:

  1. The land is always stalking people. The land makes people live right. The land looks after us. The land looks after people.
  2. Our children are losing the land. It doesn't go to work on them anymore. They don't know the stories about what happened at these places. That's why some get into trouble.
  3. We used to survive only off the land. Now it's no longer that way. Now we live only with money, so we need jobs. But the land still looks after us. We know the names of the places where everything happened. So we stay away from badness.
  4. I think of that mountain called 'white rocks lie above in a compact cluster' as if it were my maternal grandmother. I recall stories of how it once was at that mountain. The stories told to me were like arrows. Elsewhere, hearing that mountain's name, I see it. Its name is like a picture. Stories go to work on you like arrows. Stories make you live right. Stories make you replace yourself.
  5. One time I went to L.A., training for mechanic. It was no good, sure no good. I start drinking, hang around bars all the time. I start getting into trouble with my wife, fight sometimes with her. It was bad. I forget about this country here around Cibecue. I forget all the names and stories. I don't hear them in my mind anymore. I forget how to live right, forget how to be strong.

Semiotic Problem

The challenge in interpreting these statements is not due to confused thinking but a semiotic barrier. It arises from the cultural context of objects and events unfamiliar to outsiders. The goal is to understand the cultural context in which these statements are valid claims about reality.

Questions for Interpretation

Key questions include:

  • What is required to interpret Annie Peaches's claim that the land