Premium
polytypy in folk biological taxonomies 1
Author(s) -
GEOGHEGAN WILLIAM H.
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.1976.3.3.02a00050
Subject(s) - salience (neuroscience) , subject (documents) , biological data , sociology , epistemology , ecology , anthropology , psychology , biology , computer science , philosophy , cognitive psychology , bioinformatics , library science
The mathematical relationship between the size of biological genera (the number of included species, or polytypy) and their relative frequency has been well understood for over fifty years. It is argued here that a similar mathematical relationship should hold for the distribution of polytypy within folk biological taxonomies, but with the overall degree, or tendency toward polytypy subject to influence by cultural factors (salience, agricultural practices, etc.). This is demonstrated with data from several different folk taxonomies. The findings support the contention that folk systems of biological nomenclature accurately reflect natural biological diversity, and that they are able to do this despite the strong influence of cultural factors. The data also provide indirect support for some of Berlin's suggestions concerning the temporal development of folk taxonomic systems .