An ethnographic contribution describing the beliefs and ideas associated with witchcraft as shared "knowledge" that the Apaches have about their universe. Uncovers the types of interpersonal relationships with which witchcraft accusations are regularly associated and posits explanations for these associations.

Keith Basso was University Regents Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. He was the author of Cibecue Apache; Portraits of the 'Whiteman': Linguistic Play and Cultural Symbols among the Western Apache; and other books and monographs dealing with aspects of the relationship between language and culture.