Chapter 3, Botany.  Ethnobotany, G. J. Martin, Chapman and Hall, London, 1995.

 

Importance of voucher specimens

            Documentation of materials examined in the study

            Specimens for determination

            Reference specimens

            Diagnostic features

            Preserved and maintained in good condition

            Must include pertinent information on the label of the specimen

Must be supported by field notes on the collection site, the appearance of the plant in the field, as well as it’s classification and use(s) by local people

Must be readily accessible in an institution that is clearly identified in research reports and publications.  This should include institutions in the country of collection.

            Duplicates

Collections

Herbarium

Pertinent data for specimens (which should be recorded in the field notebook as well as on labels):

            Collector and institution

            Date

            Elevation

            Location – preferably with GPS

            Slope

            Uses

            Names

            Abundance of the plant

            Associated plants

            Soil types, type of rocks present

            Size of plants

            Colors of flowers and fruits

            Odors of flowers and fruits

            Pollinators, seed/fruit disseminators

            Photos, sketches, drawings

            Other material that will not be available on the pressed specimen

Labels

Annotation labels

When making collections:

            Try to collect away from obvious areas

            Be sensitive to local feelings

            Try to avoid killing plants if possible

            Take advantage of other activities such as weeding, lumbering etc.

            Make multiple collections

            Use good quality field notebook

            Use logical sequence of collection numbers

Sterile collections

Document informants and other pertinent information carefully

Pressing and preserving specimens

            Newspapers

            Corrugates and blotters

            Alcohol and formalin

            Drying

            Large or small plants

            Fruits/seeds

            Wood samples

            Use acid free paper for labels and mounting specimens

Collecting living materials

Collecting for DNA isolation and study

Curation of collections

Other possible preservation of specimens

            Museums

            Botanical Gardens

            Seed banks

            Anthropology collections

In depth collections needed for analyzing folk categories or botanical ranks and classifications

 

 

 

 

 

B. Berlin, D. E. Breedlove, and P. H. Raven.  General principles of Classification and Nomenclature in Folk Biology, Amereican Anthropology 75 214-242 (1973).

 

 

In all languages, some common general principles concerning nomenclature and classification seem to apply.

 

There are linguistically recognized groupings of organisms of varying degrees of inclusiveness.  They are called taxa (singular taxon).

 

Taxa can be further grouped into a small number of classes called taxonomic ethnobiological categories.  These categories number about 5.

 

These five categories are arranged hierarchically and taxa assigned to each rank are mutually exclusive.

 

In folk taxonomies, the taxon of “unique beginner” … e.g., plant or animal …. Often is not explicitly named.

 

Taxa of the “life form” category are usually few in number, usually 5 to 10.  Examples in English are tree, vine, bird, grass, nammal, etc.

 

In typical folk taxonomies, taxa which are members of the ethnobiological category “generic” are much more numerous.  Often there are about 500 of these.  Most of these generic taxa are included in one of the “life form” categories above.  These include things like:  oak, robin, pine, catfish.  Some are not.  These are often things considered “aberrant”, such as cacti, bamboo, pineappple, platypus.

 

These generic units are the basic building blocks of all folk taxonomies.

 

Taxa which are member of the last two categories, “specific” or “varietal” are much less numerous.  They represent the most commonly referred to groupings of organisms in the natural environment.  Varietal taxa are rare in most instances.

 

Both specific and varietal taxa are usually recognized because they consist of secondary lexemes and not primary lexemes as life forms and generic taxa.

 

Nomenclature is often a near perfect guide to folk taxonomic structure.

 

 

Two common types of names:

Unique “single word” expressions which can be shown to be semantically unitary and linguistically distinct.  Oak, pine, rabbit, maple are examples in English.  These are called primary lexemes.

A second type involves examples of the first type in variously modified form:  post oak, ponderosa pine, sugar maple, cottontail rabbit.  These are called secondary lexemes.

 

Two types of primary lexemes:

            In addition to simple, unanalyzable words, there are combinations such as tuliptree, pipevine, planetree, … tulip tree is a kind of tree.  Pipevine is a kind of vine.  These are called productive primary lexemes.

            On the other hand there are some like:  beggar-tick or jack-in-the-pulpit that are different.  Beggars-ticks have nothing to do with beggars or ticks.  This type is called a non-productive primary lexeme.

 

Secondary lexemes generally label classes of organisms of lesser inclusiveness than folk genera or life forms.  They can often be associated with folk species or folk varieties.

 

Tzeltal plant taxonomy:  In this discussion the authors illustrate some of the above points with examples.  Interestingly the domain of plants as conceived by the Tzeltal corresponds almost perfectly with the standard plant division of Western systematic botany.

 

Although the concept exists, there is no word comparable to the English word “plant”.  The concept can be expressed however by more complex linguistic structures.

 

The Tzeltal have 4 life form categories that include about 75% of all the things we would consider plants.  These correspond to the most obvious and widespread life forms in their environment.

 

They have about 471 mutually exclusive generic names.  Of these, 356 are included in one of the four life forms above.  However, 97 are not.  They are treated as unaffiliated generics.  Most are either cultivated plants or morphologically peculiar:  corn, agave, bamboo..

 

Some 91 of these 471 are labeled by expressions that are of recent origin, i.e., they are loan words or loan expressions, largely from Spanish.  The remaining 380 are labeled by native Tzeltal expressions which can be analyzed linguistically as primary lexemes.  (101 are simple primary lexemes, 125 unproductive primary lexemes, and 154 as productive lexemes).

 

Of these 471, only 73 consist of generic groupings that contain species level categories.  They contain from 2 to 17 specific entities.  About 273 species or varietal level taxa occur.

 

The linguistic forms used at the species or varietal categorical level are very similar to those used as Linnaean binomials in our scientific nomenclature.

 

There are also some unusual instances where generic taxa are labeled by secondary lexemes.  Most of these are introduced plants such as sorghum, wheat, and strawberries.

 

Sorghum was called “Castillian corn” (in Tzeltal) and wheat “Moors corn” (in Tzeltal).  However, these two introduced plants are distinguished from “genuine” corn, which is sometimes called “true” corn (in Tzeltal).

 

A similar situation exists with blackberries (native to Mexico) and strawberries (the kind that are cultivated are native to Europe).  Blackberries are sometimes called “true” blackberries and strawberries are called “Castillian” blackberries (both names in Tzeltal).

 

In a few cases, specific taxa are labeled with primary lexemes (most names at this categorical level are secondary lexemes).  An example is custard apple (Annona cherimola – a fruit sometimes seen in our grocery stores).  Even in this case, when greater precision is desired, however, informants call it the “genuine” custard apple …. Although normally it’s just called by a single name (primary lexeme). 

 

Please read the summary of the Tzeltal world of plants on pages 226-227 of the reading.

 

The remaining pages of the article include literature studies of the Hanunóo (of New Guinea), the Karam (of New Guinea), Cantonese (China), Navajo (North America), Guaraní (South America), and Nahuatl (Mexico).

 

Berlin, Breedlove, and Raven conclude that:

 

There are at least 5 or possibly 6, taxonomic ethnobiological categores which appear to be general, if not universal, in folk biological science.  They may be defined as unique beginner, life form, generic, specific, and varietal.  Intermediate categories are uncommon.  Generally the category with the largest number of taxa is the generic category.  Generic taxa mark the most salient conceptual groupings of organisms in any folk taxonomy and represent the fundamental units in ethnobiological classification.

 

The five ethnobiological categories are arranged hierarchically and taxa assigned to each rank are mutually exclusive.  Taxa of the came ethnobiological category characteristically, but not invariably, occur at the same rank in any folk taxonomy.

 

The naming of taxa which occur as members of the ethnobiological categories can be reduced to a small number of nomenclatural principles which are essentially identical in all languages.

 

Life form and generic taxa tend to be labeled with primary lexemes; specific and varietal taxa tend to be labeled by secondary lexemes.  The unique beginner is rarely named (although, interestingly, it is in English).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Berlin, Brent. Denise A. Breedlove, and Peter H. Raven.     General Principles of Classification and Nomenclature in Folk Biology. American Anthropologist February, 1973 Vol.75(2):  214-242.

 

The authors of this article sought to prove that there are generalities among cultures in the classification of organisms.  In doing so, they presented findings from work they had done with the Tzeltal, a Mayan group.  They made a cross-cultural comparison of their work with the work of others who had studied classification systems of various peoples, such as the Hanunoo and Karam.  The authors identified general principles that all "folk biosystematics" are built on, the most important of which is five main taxonomic levels that cultures use to classify organisms. The first level is "unique beginner," which is the most inclusive level. An example would be the categories of "plant" and "animal" in western classification. The next levels get more specific. The whole system is a hierarchy that might, for example, put all fish in one category and specifically named fish in the next.

After establishing the levels and finding evidence of them in various cultures, the authors provide arguments that within the levels certain similarities are found in nomenclature. The most basic similarity is that at a certain level binomials are used, in the equivalent taxonomic levels of all of the systems studied.  Finally, the authors seek to establish a relationship between the hierarchy a culture uses and the nomenclature they use for their system. They conclude by stating that "linguistic structure is a mirror of taxonomic status."  CLARITY RANKING: 4  TRACCI GABEL Southwest Missouri State University (Bill Wedenoja)