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toward a perceptual model of folk biological classification 1
Author(s) -
HUNN EUGENE
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.1976.3.3.02a00080
Subject(s) - biological classification , extension (predicate logic) , space (punctuation) , perception , taxonomic rank , epistemology , artificial intelligence , computer science , ecology , philosophy , linguistics , biology , evolutionary biology , taxon , programming language
The notion of taxonomic structure has played a central role in recent descriptions and analyses of folk systems of biological classification. The increasingly apparent inadequacies of that notion as a model of folk classification processes justify a fundamental theoretical reorientation. Reasonably interpretable and formally adequate definitions of inductive classification ( Postulate I ) and of dissimilarities in a classification space ( Postulate II) are more adequate than the taxonomic model for understanding patterns observed in folk biological classification systems. A non‐rigorous extension of this “perceptual model” deals with the key problem of taxonomic ranks .