Domain-Specific and General Properties of Folk Classifications

Bibliographic Data

ID22901129
AuthorsEric W Holman (University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume25
Issue1
Pages71-91
Publication date2005-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Ethnobiology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0278-0771 • E-ISSN: 2162-4496
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2993/0278-0771(2005)25[71:dagpof]2.0.co;2
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited48

Published hierarchical folk classifications of animals, plants, and a wide variety of other things are surveyed in search of similarities and differences. In contrast to classifications of other things, classifications of animals and plants distinguish more categories, are more likely to be endowed with taxonomic ranks, and obey more consistently a nomenclatural rule related to ranks. Even within the set of things other than animals and plants, there is evidence for differences among classifications of different domains. These cross-cultural regularities suggest that taxonomic judgments are not entirely determined by culture. Despite their differences, most of the classifications are similar in their average number of hierarchical levels. The small number of levels in all folk classifications suggests a general limit, possibly on memory.

Biological classification · Biology · Contrast (vision) · Evolutionary biology · Geography · Set (abstract data type) · Statistics · Taxon · Taxonomic rank · Variety (cybernetics) · Artificial Intelligence · Banana Cultivation and Research · Computer Science · Ecology · Ethnobotanical and Medicinal Plants Studies · Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Agriculture · Mathematics

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