Classification as Narrative: A Renewed Perspective on a Longstanding Topic in Ethnobiology

Abstract

principles that Berlin and others set forth and to continue to discuss the significance of studying natural-kind classification systems. An important vein of inquiry in ethnobiological studies of classification has included attention to change within classificatory systems, history, and context. Brent Berlin (1992) and Cecil Brown (1984), in particular, consider developmental stages of inclusive hierarchy, most convincingly related to modes of economy and social structure, where particular categories and naming patterns are identified cross-culturally through an evolutionary paradigm. Roy Ellen and David Reason (1979) point to the significance of social context in understanding systems of natural-kind classification, arguing that classification systems are not abstracted from real-world situations but embedded in socio-cultural processes. Other historical works, such as the ornithological study by Tim Birkhead (2008), trace the connections between categories of natural kinds, as identified by