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Ndumba Folk Biology and General Principles of Ethnobotanical Classification and Nomenclature
Author(s) -
Hays Terence E.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1983.85.3.02a00050
Subject(s) - ethnobiology , nomenclature , ethnobotany , new guinea , folk medicine , anthropology , terminology , schema (genetic algorithms) , traditional medicine , biology , linguistics , zoology , ethnology , history , taxonomy (biology) , philosophy , ecology , sociology , computer science , medicine , medicinal plants , machine learning
Brent Berlin's proposed “general principles of classification and nomenclature” are examined as they apply to folk biology in Ndumba, a Papua New Guinea highlands society. Focusing on Ndumba folk zoology, supplemented with a previous analysis of their folk botany, Berlin's analytical schema for ethnobiological classification is supported, but principles of nomenclature in ethnobiology appear to be in need of reconsideration. [ethnosemantics, folk biology, language universals, Papua New Guinea]