Plant Classification and Nomenclature in Ndumba, Papua New Guinea Highlands
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2735899 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Terence E Hays (Rhode Island College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1979 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 253 |
| Publication date | 1979-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethnology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0014-1828 • E-ISSN: 2160-3510 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3773377 |
| OpenAlex | W1581109261 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
Traditionally, the terms and have designated little more than the study of plant and animal utilization. In the past two decades, however, the ways in which the components of given biological environments are locally perceived and categorized have received increasing attention. Not only has the study of ethnobiological classification been recognized as essential to a wide variety of ethnographic concerns (cf. Frake I+2; Bulmer I967), but the discovery of possible universals in folk classification systems promises to enrich our understanding of human cognitive processes as well (Berlin et al. I973; Brown I977). The paucity of comprehensive studies of particular ethnobiological classification systems, however, has meant that generalizations have necessarily been based largely on a few well-described cases, most notably Hanunoo ethnobotany (Conklin I954), Kalam ethnozoology (Bulmer I967, I974) and Tzeltal Maya ethnobotany (Berlin et al. I974) and ethnozoology (Hunn I977). This paper provides an outline of the folk classification of plants in Ndumba, a New Guinea Highlands society. It is intended as a contribution to the ethnographic literature from a region in which ethnobotanical research has concentrated almost exclusively on plant utilization and related issues.2 Aside from its possible value to regional specialists, this description allows a critical assessment of ethnobiological proposed 'tuniversals, especially those by Berlin and his colleagues (Berlin et al. I973; Berlin I976). Following a brief sketch of the environment and culture of Ndumba, I will describe the more formal aspects of their view of the plant world following Berlin's suggested terminology and typologies to facilitate such an assessment. It will be seen that Ndumba plant classification deviates from Berlin's proposed general principles in a few particulars that are, for the most part, proba61y explainable in terms of the dynamic properties of classification systems
New guinea · African Botany and Ecology Studies · Ethnobotanical and Medicinal Plants Studies · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
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Women, Fire, and Dangerous Theories
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The Nature of Folk-Botanical Life Forms
Ndumba Folk Biology and General Principles of Ethnobotanical Classification and Nomenclature
Ethnobiology in Four Phases
| Citations per year | 0.3 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1983 - 2025 (43) |
| Highly cited | No |