Mode of Subsistence and Folk Biological Taxonomy [and Comments and Reply]

Abstract

There are significant differences between the folk biological taxonomy and nomenclature of hunter-gatherers and that of small-scale agriculturalists. While foragers possess sizable inventories of labeled plant and animal classes, small-scale farmers tend to have inventories that are considerably larger. Also, binomial names, such as English blue oak and shingle oak, are common in folk taxonomies of cultivators but rare in those of hunter-gatherers. An explanatory framework accounting for these findings is proposed which in part relates the larger taxonomies of farmers to (1) a diversity of ecotypes created by subsistence farming that supports a broadened range of wild organisms, (2) intensive utilization of wild plants and animals as "famine foods" when crops fail, and (3) the greater health risks of farmers, which motivate exceptional interest in organisms of medicinal value. The common occurrence of binomially labeled classes in taxonomies of agriculturalists is related to the lower salience of those taxa compared to the salience of classes labeled in taxonomies of foragers.