[Lexicog] Detailed scientific/cultural information in dictionaries

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 31 Mar 2004, William J Poser wrote:
> I have found that it is not hard to deal with mammals since both I and
> my informants are sufficiently acquainted with them, but for other
> organisms difficulties arise.

In my limited fieldwork experience I started running into problems after
really large mammals.  In the US plains regions there are problems with
species as large as canines and cats smaller than mountain lions, because
folk classifications differ from Linnaean ones (on both sides of the
fence).

In dealing with terms for 'trees' in dictionaries of Siouan languages I've
noticed that terms resolving forms below the genus or even order are rare,
either nonexistant or not generally known, unless a particular species is
rather atypical or economically significant.

I've seen indirect evidence that herbs and birds are especially
problematic due to differences of principles in classification.  Presence
of edible roots or the environments in which the herbs are found may
assume primary significance.  With birds, biological species markedly
diferent at different ages or in the sexes may end up with their differing
forms classified with other biologically distinct species, e.g., juvenile
bald eagles with certain golden eagles.  Different color phases of golden
eagles may be regarded as markedly different species.  Herbs and birds are
also areas in which sociological factors begin to enter in strongly, too.
With respect to the issues with birds in particular there is an excellent
article:

Moore, John H.  1986.  The ornithology of Cheyenne religionists.
    Plains Anthropologist 31-113:177-192.

The discussion here is very consistent with elements appearing piecemeal
elsewhere in contexts where Plains ethnotaxonomy figures and may apply
elsewhere in the world, too.  I'm sure there are many other valuable
discussions of the issues, perhaps in more general terms.



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