CELCE event, "Folkbiology in Endangered Languages: The Cultural Classification of Living Kinds"

Описание: Talk by Prof. David Stringer of Indiana University on 5 November 2025. Audio-only recording.

Abstract:
Folkbiology in Endangered Languages: The Cultural Classification of Living Kinds

In this paper, I contrast universalist and relativist approaches to the folk classification of living kinds (e.g., mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, plants, etc.) from a linguistic perspective, with a focus on endangered languages in endangered ecosystems. Predominant theories of folkbiology emphasize universal aspects of human perception and cognition but have often been contested by research emphasizing cultural relativity. This is arguably a false dichotomy: despite the existence of cognitive universals based mostly on visual perception, there is abundant evidence that the lexical semantics of words and phrases denoting particular taxa and their relation to overt cultural expression vary cross-linguistically. Recent calls for the indigenization of knowledge highlight the need to illuminate parallel and complementary knowledge systems, in line with efforts to decolonize academic research. Despite admirable rigor and significant insights, research that attempts to interlock folk taxonomies across languages underestimates the fundamental importance of lexical relativity; the nature of the mental lexicon itself precludes the possibility that there be precise crosslinguistic equivalence in this domain. I present a range of examples from indigenous taxonomies that provide lexical windows into local ecology and belief systems and propose an analysis by which (i) universalist and relativist perspectives are not in conflict; and (ii) Indigenous naming systems are of comparable social and scientific value to Western taxonomies. Implications are drawn for the role of language in ethnobiological documentation and biocultural diversity conservation.