Chapter 4, Wisdom Sits in Places, Epilogue Summary and Analysis

Basso laments the progress of industrialism, which separates people from their lands and supports efforts by the Apaches to protect their native lands. One method of protecting the Apache involves understanding their deep attachment to their places but Basso realizes that few, even in his profession, are interested in his project. We must understand our relationships with places; when we attend to those relations we can have a sense of richly living and feeling them. And in doing so we can dwell on aspects of ourselves, some that are deep and some that are evolving.

Familiar places are inherently meaningful; their value comes from their observable characteristics, which merge the attentive subject with the object. Human constructions are generated in this interaction and can come to speak to those who experience...