Are Biological Species and Higher‐Ranking Categories Real? Fish Folk Taxonomy on Brazil's Atlantic Forest Coast and in the Amazon

Abstract

Analysis of Brazilian fishers' classifications of 24 marine (Atlantic coast) and 24 freshwater (Amazon) fish species reveals that fishers from the Atlantic coast identify fish mainly through generic names (primary lexemes), while riverine Amazonian fishers typically identify them through binomials. The similarity of Amazonian fish species seems to contribute to the detailed folk taxonomy used by riverine fishers. Highranking groups called "relatives" or "cousins" are sorted by fishers in terms of similarities of habitat, diet, and morphology and, secondarily, behavior. The general correspondence between the folk and scientific taxonomies reinforces the reality of both the supracategories used by these fishers and the biological groups as discontinuities in nature. Given the urgency of biological inventories and the lack of knowledge of high-biodiversity environments such as the Atlantic Forest and the Amazon, these results suggest that fisher knowledge and experience could contribute to scientific research. The reality of species has been the subject of debate since the early days of evolutionary biology. Darwin defined species as varieties that are well demarcated and defined and actually exist at a certain point in time, but his analysis left open the possibility that species might be arbitrary constructions of the human mind (Darwin 1859a [1982], 1859b; Coyne and Orr 2004). The term "species" is vague because it includes both

Folk taxonomy of fishes of artisanal fishermen of Ilhabela (São Paulo/Brazil)

“…Data on folk taxonomy detailed in this article have been shown more widely in the study of Begossi et al (2008) who made a comparison between taxonomy of fishers from southeast of Sao Paulo and Amazon; therefore, the results of data analysis collected in Ilhabela can be understood as a deepening of the analysis performed earlier by these authors. Berlin (1992) names that represent the generic taxa are always more numerous in any folk classification system and can be divided into monotypic and polytypic.…”

“…The morphological aspect in the binomial identification of organisms is very prominent in the literature (Berlin 1992). Studies show that morphological characteristics of fish are a strong trend in the composition of popular classification systems with binomial both among fishermen in coastal communities (Begossi & Garavello 1990, Begossi & Figueiredo 1995, Clauzet et al 2007) among coastal fishermen in the Brazilian Amazon (Begossi et al 2008). In Ilhabela (SP), results of popular binomial nomenclature reinforce the importance of morphological characteristics of organisms in folk systematic showing the predominance of morphological characters in fish identification, 56% binomial names being related to some morphology aspect of named fish.…”

“…According to Paz & Begossi (1996) and to Begossi et al (2008) fish can be locally recognized by fishermen as "cousins" or "relatives" and grouped into higher categories (high-ranking) locally known as "families" (folk families). Other folk taxonomy studies on different fishermen communities found the local perception of fish as relatives (Clauzet et al 2007).…”

“…Among these studies, we can mention Marques (1991Marques ( , 2001) in estuarine-lagoon complex Mundaú-Manguaba (Alagoas); Begossi & Garavello (1990) in the Tocantins River (Amazon); Begossi & Figueiredo (1995) in Búzios Island (SP ) and Sepetiba Bay (RJ); Paz & Begossi (1996) in the Bay of Sepetiba (RJ), Costa Neto & Marques (2000) with fishermen of Siribinha (BA); Seixas & Begossi (2001) on the Ilha Grande, Coastal southeastern Brazil; Mourão & Nordi (2002a, b) in the estuary Mamanguape (PB); Clauzet et al (2007) in Guaibim (BA) and Begossi et al (2008) on the Atlantic coast of Brazil and Amazon.…”

“…Fish species that were part of the kit had already been pre-determined by the researchers since this research was part of a major research project in the area coordinated by one of the authors (AB). Fish pictures used in this project were done by R. A. M. Silvano, from FIFO and UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil and was described in Begossi et al (2008). In this technique, already used successfully in previous studies (Marques 1991, Paz & Begossi Biota Neotrop.,vol.…”