quick note about flying things

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 21 Jan 2001, RLR wrote:

> My recollection is that we were talking about flying things AND creepy
> crawly things as separate sets.

Yes.  My fault.  We were talking about 'eagles' in Cheyenne, and I was
pointing out parallels between Mississippi Valley Siouan folk taxonomies
and those discussed for Cheyenne in a reference on Cheyenne folk taxonomy
for birds.  Both Cheyenne and (apparently) Omaha-Ponca distinguish eagles
and some other large birds (in the sense of Linnaean Aves) from small
birds, which, in OP are wazhiNga.  I pointed out as an aside that both
Cheyenne and OP classify a variety of insects, lizards, worms, etc., in a
single class for which OP uses the wagdhishka term.  This term has been
referred to among Siouan comparativists in the last decade or so a the
'creepy-crawly' term, using an English term that seems to have
approximately the same range.


> BTW anyone know how hummingbirds fit? In some folk taxonomies they go
> with locusts and other large insects.

Not a clue.  I suspect that at least some large flying insects might be
classes as birds, however, from the existence of a Winnebago term covering
both owls and moths.

> ardis eschenberg wrote:
> >
> > I mentally noted in an earlier discussion on classifications of birds that
> > 'wagdhishka' in Omaha-Ponca was being used to refer to flying things.  I am
> > hesitant about this classification.  It seems to refer mostly to bugs in
> > current use which seem folk-taxonomically related to reptiles:
> >
> > wagdhishka hi duba 'alligator' (literally: insect foot four, 'four-footed
> > insect')

Precisely.

For what it's worth, I don't know of any modern work on Siouan
ethnobiology at all.

JEK