Subtitle
Some Cautionary Notes
Document Type
Article
Department (Manual Entry)
Dept. of Anthropology
Abstract
Attempts to explain the complexity of folk biological classification systems may benefit from utilitarian or adaptationist arguments, focusing on the utilitarian or adaptive value of the behavioral consequences of folk distinctions among organisms. To adequately assess such perspectives it is necessary to resolve a number of theoretical, methodological empirical problems, which are identified and outlined in this paper as a first step toward the construction of such theories of ethnobiological classification.
Citation
Hays, T.E. (1982). Utilitarian / adaptationist explanations of folk bioglogical classification: Some cautionary notes. Journal of Ethnobiology, 2(1), 1982.