The Folk Biology of the Tobelo People a Study in Folk Classification
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£\ The Folk Biology of the Tobelo People A Study in Folk Classification PAUL MICHAEL TAYLOR • .• SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY • NUMBER 34 SERIES PUBLICATIONS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Emphasis upon publication as a means of "diffusing knowledge" was expressed by the first Secretary of the Smithsonian. In his formal plan for the Institution, Joseph Henry outlined a program that included the following statement: "It is proposed to publish a series of reports, giving an account of the new discoveries in science, and of the changes made from year to year in all branches of knowledge." This theme of basic research has been adhered to through the years by thousands of titles issued in series publications under the Smithsonian imprint, commencing with Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge in 1848 and continuing with the following active series: Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics Smithsonian Contributions to Botany Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences Smithsonian Contributions to the Marine Sciences Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology Smithsonian Folklife Studies Smithsonian Studies in Air and Space Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology In these series, the Institution publishes small papers and full-scale monographs that report the research and collections of its various museums and bureaux or of professional colleagues in the world of science and scholarship. The publications are distributed by mailing lists to libraries, universities, and similar institutions throughout the world. Papers or monographs submitted for series publication are received by the Smithsonian Institution Press, subject to its own review for format and style, only through departments of the various Smithsonian museums or bureaux, where the manuscripts are given substantive review. Press requirements for manuscript and art preparation are outlined on the inside back cover. Robert McC. Adams Secretary Smithsonian Institution SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY • NUMBER 34 The Folk Biology of the Tobelo People A Study in Folk Classification Paul Michael Taylor SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS Washington, D.C. 1990 ABSTRACT Taylor, Paul Michael The Folk Biology of the Tobelo People: A Study in Folk Classification. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, number 34, 187 pages, 11 figures, 1 map, 1990.—This ethnographic study of folk biology among the Tobelo (a West Papuan-speaking ethnic group of Halmahera Island, Maluku, Indonesia) outlines local cultural presumptions about classifying flora and fauna, describes the system of folk biological nomenclature in terms consistent with the morphology and syntax of the Tobelo language, and analyzes the local system of folk classification within a posited semantic domain of "biotic forms." In the local linguistic context, dialectal differences, multilingualism, an apparently strict in-law name taboo, and particular speech registers for which Tobelo consider their own language inappropriate are shown to affect word formation, the adoption of foreign plant and animal names, and other aspects of ethnobiological classification. Culturally, the belief that names for plants and animals were set down by ancestors vastly more familiar with local biota than are their descendants, the notion that there is a "proper" name for virtually all easily visible plants and animals, and that much knowledge is and should remain esoteric, justify several alternative ways in which the Tobelo may reconcile individual or dialectal variation to determine "proper" details of classification consistent with these presumptions. Nomenclature is considered in detail. The importance of recognizing the lexemic status of homonymous and polysemous terms is illustrated; and means of recognizing lexemes having the same form as non-lexemic expressions are detailed. A morphosyntactic classification of lexemic types is here applied to the formation of terms in this domain. Unlabeled classes within this semantic domain (including the highest-level class BIOTIC FORM) are posited, and new methods are presented for determining and evaluating such "covert categories." A critique of other procedures based on perceived similarities among plants and animals shows that the only local cultural significance of those classes may be their sudden appearance as a result of tests designed to find them, that similarities observed may not be those used in hierarchically relating folk taxa, and that such classes do not in any case belong in a linguistic description. From a systematic review of Tobelo lexemes it is possible to avoid these difficulties. The analysis of Tobelo folk biological classification (the system of semantic relations among usually lexically labeled classes) provides various types of evidence for the distinctiveness of a "basic" level, and details methods for distinguishing basic terms. Taxonomic relations order the set of hierarchically related folk classes into eleven levels: the widest or "basic" level, along with six above and four below. Non-"regular" elements of this folk taxonomy include nonsymmetric and disjunctive contrast, "residue" of higher-level classes, ambiguous subclass-superclass relations, and dual structural positions of a single class in the overall hierarchic structure. Also analyzed are other types of semantic relations among folk classes, including a 'mother'-'child' relation among FAUN AL FORMS, crosscutting and intersecting subclasses of the basic class, and classification by growth stage and size. The Tobelo are able to use these methods of classifying local fauna and flora to justify the observed differences among themselves (or among Tobelo dialects) in how they classify the same plants and animals. They even sometimes use this classificatory system to productively predict the existence of plants and animals that have not yet been observed, much as our chemists once used the Periodic Table of the Elements to predict the existence of elements that had not been observed. Detailed folk classificatory, nomenclatural, and systematic botanical and zoological information for all recorded BIOTIC FORMS is given in the appendixes, which are based upon extensive collections of Halmaheran terrestrial and marine animals and plants, along with their associated ethnographic information. OFFICIAL PUBLICATION DATE is handstamped in a limited number of initial copies and is recorded in the Institution's annual report, Smithsonian Year. COVER DESIGN: Two Tobelo decorative winnowing baskets, made at Kampung PasirPutih in 1981. Plaited o todoku bamboo strips (Bambusa atra Lindl.), with frames of o iwi (Calamus sp.) wrapped in strips of o buho (Pandanus sp.). Left, human figure (seen from convex side, as basket would be displayed if hung in a house). Right, quadripartite geometric pattern (seen from concave side, as would be seen if winnowing rice). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Taylor, Paul Michael The folk biology of the Tobelo people: a study in folk classification / Paul Michael Taylor. p. cm. - (Smithsonian contributions to anthropology ; no. 34) Includes bibliographical references. Supt of Docs, no.: SI 1.33:34 1. Tobelo (Indonesian people)—Folklore. 2. Folklore—Indonesia—Maluku—Classification. 3. Human ecology— Indonesia—Maluku. 4. Tobelo language—Classification. I. Title. II. Series. GN1.S54 no. 34 [GR 3245.T62) 89-600388 301 s-dc20 CIP [306.4'5] Contents Page PREFACE v Acknowledgments v Note on Pronunciation vii 1. Introduction 1 1.1 The Description of Tobelo Folk Classification 1 1.2 Field Methods 4 2. Tobelo Folk Biology in Its Sociolinguistic and Cultural Context 11 2.1 The Tobelo Language Situation 11 2.1.1 The Tobelo Dialects 11 2.1.2 Multilingualism and the Use of Other Languages in Special Registers 13 2.1.3 Ethnicity, Religion, and Language in Halmaheran Villages 15 2.1.4 The In-law Name Taboo and Its Practical Effects 19 2.1.5 Conclusion: The Tobelo Language Situation and Tobelo Folk Classifi cation 20 2.2 The Cultural Importance of Local Biota 21 2.2.1 Subsistence and Diet 21 2.2.2 Ethnogeography 21 2.2.3 Technology 22 2.2.4 Magic and Medicine 22 2.3 Tobelo Cultural Presumptions about Their Folk Biological Classification . 22 3. Plant and Animal Nomenclature 24 3.0 Introduction 24 3.1 The Identification and Importance of Lexemes 24 3.1.1 Forms, Lexemes, and Expressions 24 3.1.2 The Lexemic Status of Homonymous and Polysemous Terms 25 3.1.3 Recognizing Lexemes That Have the Same Form as Non-lexemic Expressions 28 3.1.4 Conclusion: The Identification of Lexemes 30 3.2 Types of Lexemes 30 3.2.1 Words and Phrasal Lexemes 31 3.2.2 Types of Word and Phrasal Lexemes 32 3.2.2.1 Simple Words, Including Foreign Compound Borrowings . 33 3.2.2.2 Types of Complex Words 33 3.2.2.3 Endocentric and Exocentric Compound Words and Phrasal Lexemes 34 3.3 Foreign Borrowings in Tobelo Nomenclature 39 3.4 A Note on Berlin, Breedlove, and Raven's Classification of Lexemes .... 40 4. The Domain of the BIOTIC FORM, and Other Posited Unlabeled Classes .... 42 4.1 Why Posit Unlabeled ("Covert") Classes? 42 4.2 The Quest for "Perceived Similarity" Is Not a Quest for Unlabeled Classes 44 4.3 The Method of Co-hyponymy 46 4.4 The Method of Definitional Implication 47 4.5 Conclusion and Summary 51 5. The Tobelo Folk Classification of BIOTIC FORMS 52 m SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY IV 5.0 Introduction 52 5.1 The "Basic"-ness of the Basic Term • • 52 5.1.1 The Limited Applicability of Nomenclatural