Wisdom Sit In Places Analysis

People make places. As trivial as that sounds, it is of immense importance. In Keith Basso’s Wisdom Sits in Places, he explores this concept and refers to a castle that is believed to be where Hamlet lived, and how him living there changed the way people viewed it. The idea that a character in one of the most famous playwrights, William Shakespeare, lived in this castle made people view it as more important and more beautiful than any other castle, even though there is no hard evidence that Hamlet actually did live there. It is the wonder that he did that gives it its’ significance. Basso explores this idea further through the history of the Western Apache Indians. He explores history in a different way than one would usually think. Anglo-American history is interpreted very different from the way the Apaches interpret history. Anglo-American history detaches people from their landscape and focuses more of dating historical events and putting …show more content…
Many people group the entire westward expansion into “the frontier” but there is much more to it. There is the trader’s frontier, the rancher’s frontier, the miner’s frontier, and the farmer’s frontier. “The unequal rate of advance compels us to distinguish the frontier into the trader's frontier, the rancher's frontier, or the miner's frontier, and the farmer's frontier.” They each had their own reasons to find new opportunities, and the idea of an unexplored land with nothing to lose lured them to settle westward. The history of the American Frontier fits into the theme “space and place” very well. Settlers moved westward to new spaces to find a place that they could make their new home. The idea of opportunity drove them there and their drive to make their life something new kept them going. Depending on what frontier they were in, they had different reasons to settle the American west, but they worked together to make the American west their