Abstract
Ethnomycology among the Nuaulu of the Moluccas: Putting Berlin’s “General Principles” of Ethnobiological Classification to the Test. Berlin's (Ethnobiological Classification: Principles of Categorization of Plants and Animals in Traditional Societies. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1992) universal theories of ethnobiological classification have provided an indispensable common rubric to compare data from diverse sources. This paper examines these principles with respect to the naming of mushrooms by the Nuaulu on the eastern Indonesian island of Seram, a people for whom mushrooms have only marginal significance. Concordance to Berlin’s principles is noted in some respects, but the small proportion of overall mycological diversity that is treated, the lack of consistently labeled intermediate rankings, the conflation between specific and generic levels, and the importance of utilitarian considerations challenge Berlin's hierarchically ranked “general purpose” (i.e., natural) model of folk biological taxonomy. A comparative review of the literature on other, mostly tropical ethnomycological classifications, is also included.
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Acknowledgments
The data reported here were collected during 33 years of fieldwork visits supported by numerous projects and funding agencies. The major ethnobotanical work was undertaken in 1996, financed by ESRC grant R000 236082. Two further grants have enabled development of the Nuaulu Ethnobotanical Database and another field visit in 2003: ESRC grant RES-000-22-1106 awarded to Ellen, and H333-25-0053 awarded to Fischer, Ellen, Zeitlyn, Martin, Bowman, Puri, and Bagg. For logistical assistance in Indonesia, I thank Hermien Soselisa of Pattimura University, Ambon, and Johan Iskandar of the Institute of Ecology, Padjadjaran University, Bandung. Many mushrooms were identified thanks to administrative and technical assistance from Johannis Mogea of the Bogor Herbarium (1996), and from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, especially Leonard Forman (1971), Mark Coode (1996), David Pegler (1972–1996), and Brian Spooner (2006-). In preparing this paper I am grateful to Glenn Shepard, David Arora, and Aaron Lampman for allowing access to unpublished material, to Brian Morris for clarifying his own data, and to the European COST Action A31 on “Stability and adaptation of classification systems in a cross-cultural perspective” that funded the meeting in Landskrona, Sweden, in September 2006, at which an earlier version of this paper was presented. Glenn Shepard and David Arora have been extremely helpful in helping to shorten the paper and clarify its argument.
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Ellen, R. Ethnomycology Among the Nuaulu of the Moluccas: Putting Berlin’s “General Principles” of Ethnobiological Classification to the Test. Econ Bot 62, 483–496 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-008-9036-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-008-9036-5