Portraits of 'the Whiteman': Linguistic Play and Cultural Symbols among the Western Apache

I am required to read this book for a Cultural Anthropology class and have found it to be a monumental bore.
First off is Basso's tendency to use unnecessarily complicated wording to say what could easily be said with simple and straight forward terminology. The reader should not be forced to repeatedly consult a dictionary to know what is being said. Two examples would be "concomitantly" on page 17, and "suprasegmental" (I had to consult three dictionaries in the school library before finding the meaning, and if you want to know what it is, look it up your own dang self, like I had to) which is to be found on page 55. The author's use of terms that are native to those he is studying is fine since the author gives an explanation of the words meaning; the use of overly polysyllabic words however smack of showing off. I get enough of that when I try to read George Will's column thank you very much.
Next is Basso's attempt to analyze humor; if you wish to eliminate the humor from a given joke just analyze that puppy and before you know it the joke is no longer funny.
Finally I take exception to the assertion that racist humor aimed at caucasions is not racist. On page 37 we are informed that the jokes are not intended to be "slurs, criticisms, and insults." If one were to take this position with a group of rednecks making similar "interpretations" about members of another ethnic group, people would be justly appalled. Racism is where any group of people, of any skin color, is stereotyped. The way to eliminate racism is to acknowledge it when and where it is found. Had Basso simply noted that it was racist at its base then there would be no problem.
The one good thing about this book is that it does properly point out the basic differences from one culture to another concerning how people interact, and how this can lead to misunderstandings.

Basso is one of the premier ethnographers in the U.S. His studies of the Western Apache are excellent models for how to do good ethnography. More importantly, Native American students in my classes find this book to be a faithful depiction of communication among many Native peoples.

"Portraits" allows for an insider's view of a social practice virtually unknown outside of anthropological cricles. Concise, and written with an economy of language, the author manages to relate the topic without sliding into the boredom of dry essay. Humor is hard to study, and harder to write about, without killing the joke. Basso actually made me laugh out loud.