General Principles of Classification and Nomenclature in Folk Biology
1973/02/01 by BRENT BERLIN, Brent Berlin, DENNIS E. BREEDLOVE +3 · 957 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Mathematics · Psychology · #Animal and Plant Science Education #Biology #Botanical Studies and Applications #Ecology #Epistemology #Field (mathematics) #History #Mathematics #Nomenclature #Philosophy #Sociology #Taxonomy (biology)
paper · doi:10.1525/aa.1973.75.1.02a00140
published in American Anthropologist 75(1), 214-242 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 1973/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Abstract
Since about 1954, modern field research has been carried out by a number of ethnographers and biologists in an effort to understand more fully the nature of folk biological classification. Much of this work has been devoted to studies dealing with the naming and classification of plants and animals in non‐Western societies. It has now become apparent that several important and far reaching generalizations can be formulated which promise to throw considerable light on prescientific man's understanding of his biological universe.
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