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FAMSI © 2001: J. Kathryn Josserand and Nicholas A. Hopkins |
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Chol Ritual Language Appendix III. Chol Bird Names Taxonomic systems are a means of organizing, describing, and utilizing our surroundings. Western science, for example, uses a binomial system of nomenclature in naming and organizing species of plants and animals. The genus and species names given to organisms allow scientists to communicate about these organisms in a precise way, and allow them to group certain species together and fit them into a broader framework. The way this information is organized reflects the Western scientific perception of the natural world. Other cultures have different ways of classifying reality. Non-Western cultures also use taxonomic systems to satisfy their needs to describe, utilize and organize knowledge about their surroundings. Unlike the Western scientific system of classification, many taxonomies have not been formalized. Use of such a taxonomy is often more unconscious than conscious. Although an individual may know the names of hundreds of plants and animals in his surroundings, he may be consciously unaware of the taxonomic system that underlies this knowledge. Most Westerners would be unaware of their own taxonomic system had they not learned it in school. Even knowing such a system exists, we may not know the genus and species names of a given organism or how it is related to other organisms, or why it is so classified. In the sixties, anthropologists began to study non-Western classification systems using specific methodologies of elicitation and analysis of lexical forms. This sub-field of anthropology is called ethnoscience, folk science, or cognitive anthropology. I propose to describe the taxonomic system for classifying birds used by the Chol Maya indians of southern México. During the summer of 1995, I had the opportunity to investigate the structure of this Maya system of taxonomy with a Chol speaker, Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, in Palenque, Chiapas. By using field techniques previously developed by Berlin, Breedlove and Raven (1972) in their investigation of Tzeltal Maya plant taxonomies, Cruz Guzmán and I collected the basic data of animal names and began trying to discover the Chol categories for these lifeforms. We focused our efforts on a corpus of about 200 bird names. In the thesis, I will describe the methodology and steps in analysis, present the Chol taxonomy for birds, and will complement the taxonomic study with an analysis of the lexical forms used by the Chol to name birds. On the following pages I present the preliminary groupings arrived at through my fieldwork with Ausencio Cruz. Preliminary Ethno-Classification of Chol Birds Research began with the slipping of animal names from major Chol sources, and elicitation of as many animal names as could otherwise be remembered. Following the compilation of this list and its registration on 3" × 5" slips, the names were sorted into major types by Cruz. Of the nearly 50 groups of animals, about half were birds, and about half were mammals, reptiles, and other life forms. After reviewing the groups and making some reassignment of slips, we were left with 25 groups of birds, on which we decided to concentrate. Future work will result in some reorganization of these groups; subgrouping within many of these groups is apparent, and will be investigated as research continues. The existence of a group sometimes reminded Cruz of other members of the group, and it is likely that the following lists do not include all Chol bird names. Approximate correspondences to major bird families are suggested by the parenthetical notes to each Group. These suggestions are based on the membership of the groups as we understand them from descriptions, Spanish glosses, field identifications, and the use of published field guides to the birds of the region. These group identifications, like the Spanish and English glosses given in parentheses, are not to be taken as definitive and reliable zoological determinations, and this report is to be understood as a preliminary organization of the data. Groups 1-21 were not birds. Group 22 (Parrots)
Due to additions and multiple names for same bird, this group may be comprised of the following: Group 23 (Roadrunner) Group 24 (Woodpeckers) Group 25 (Turkeys) This group includes only five species; many of the terms here distinguish animals by sex and age. Xkel was added to this list during the folk key procedure, 07/01/95. Group 26 (Partridges, Quail) Group 27 (Crows) Group 28 (Toucans) Group 29 k’uk’ (Trogons) Group 30 (Hawks, Owls, Vultures) Group 31 (Ducks) Group 32 (Goatsuckers, Nighthawks, Nightjars, Whip-poor-will) Group 33 (Blackbirds) Group 34 (Doves) Group 35 (?) Group 36 (Hummingbirds) Group 37 (General terms and odds and ends) Group 38 (?) Group 39 (Tyrant Flycatchers) Group 40 (Cuckoos) Group 41 (Swallows) Group 42 Group 43 (Quetzal, see Group 29) Group 44 (little birds) Group 45 (Oriole?) |
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