Emotional Meaning and the Cognitive Organization of Ethnozoological Domains

Abstract

This article shows that the cognitive structure of semantic ethnozoological domains is influenced by the culturally constituted affective values of these domains. Data were collected from American undergraduates who free listed the generic constituents of four ethnozoological life-forms: birds, fish, snakes, and wugs. Participants indicated on each free list which items they liked and disliked, and which single item best represented the life-form domain. They were also asked whether they liked or disliked the exemplar and the domain. Concordance was found between the attitude toward the life form (i.e., whether it is liked or disliked) and the salience of similarly judged items, and between the attitude toward the life form and the attitude toward the exemplar. Concordance was also found between the attitude toward the exemplar and the salience of similarly judged items. The exemplars of each life-form domain are highly salient overall, and the proportion of liked and disliked items in the free lists generally corresponds with the attitude toward the life-form domain. All findings support our hypothesis that emotional meaning and culturally conditioned attitudes play a significant role in the organization of ethnozoological domains. you fool, you fool, I don't like spiders and snakesand that ain't what it takes to love me, like I wanna be loved by you -Jim StaffordJournal of Linguistic Anthropology 1 l(2):24O-249.

Traditional Mapuche ecological knowledge in Patagonia, Argentina: fishes and other living beings inhabiting continental waters, as a reflection of processes of change

“…This situation is similar in the rest of the world [29], where the main investigations have focused on aspects related to food and medicine [16, 37–40], symbolic-religious questions [41, 42], environmental and emotional perception [43, 44], and ethnoclassification [18, 45, 46]. Several studies about ethnoichthyology are recorded in South America and Asia which have contributed an invaluable and useful source of new data about the biology and ecology of fish from the point of view of people that interact with and depend on them [2, 3, 45, 47–50].…”

O relacionamento entre pessoas e serpentes no leste de Minas Gerais, sudeste do Brasil

“…4 A opção de matar uma serpente foi justificada pelo fato de o indivíduo a considerar perigosa. Segundo Nolan & Robbins (2001), o nível de empatia para com os animais é determinante no comportamento humano diante dos mesmos. Tal associação é facilmente observada entre os entrevistados, uma vez que atitudes mais hostis mostraram-se diretamente relacionadas aos entrevistados que associavam perigo às serpentes (Figura 6b).…”

Mapuche perceptions and conservation of Andean Nothofagus forests and their medicinal plants: a case study from a rural community in Patagonia, Argentina

“…Diverse studies have shown that the biophysical and sensorial characteristics of the world around us are interpreted and classified according to cultural parameters of special meaning to each society (Shepard 2004;Molares and Ladio 2009a), such as those which have emotional connotation (Nolan and Robbins 2001), those symbolic or taboo (Jain 2000;Khumbongmayum et al 2005) and those that have importance as natural resources allowing self-sufficiency (Prescott-Allen and Prescott-Allen 1990; Lawrence et al 2005;Ladio 2011). …”

“…But, this approach alone does not consider other culturally conditioned attitudes that play a significant role in the organisation of the landscape by people. Perception forms part of an intricate system in which culture receives permanent feedback from direct individual and collective experience with the environment, both practical and emotional, so its nature is flexible and holistic (Ingold 1996;Nolan and Robbins 2001;Berkes and Turner 2006).…”