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some general principles of biological and non‐biological folk classification 1
Author(s) -
BROWN CECIL H.,
KOLAR JOHN,
TORREY BARBARA J.,
TRUONGQUANG TIPAWAN,
VOLKMAN PHILLIP
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1976.3.1.02a00050
Subject(s) - taxonomy (biology) , nomenclature , biological classification , systematics , biology , epistemology , ecology , philosophy , evolutionary biology
Principles of taxonomy and nomenclature in folk biology first outlined by Berlin, Breedlove, and Raven (1973) are shown to extend to non‐biological and non‐taxonomic folk classification. Four non‐biological taxonomies, American English “automobile” and “tool” taxonomies, a Finnish “winter vehicle” taxonomy, and a Thai “spiritghosts” taxonomy, are presented which clearly manifest so‐called “biological” principles. In addition, a Huastec (male) “body” partonomy is described, offering evidence that taxonomic principles to some extent pertain to non‐taxonomic systematics. These data indicate that principles originally attributed solely to biological classification actually relate to more general aspects of human psychic unity.