Ethnoscience
Encyclopedia
Ethnoscience has been defined as an attempt "to reconstitute what serves as science for others, their practices of looking after themselves and their bodies, their botanical knowledge, but also their forms of classification, of making connections, etc." (Augé, 1999: 118).
”, “component analysis,” or “the New Ethnography”; it is a specialization of indigenous
knowledge systems, such as Ethno-botany, ethno-zoology, ethno-medicine, etc. (Atran, 1991: 595)”. According to Scott Atran
, ethnoscience looks at culture with a scientific perspective (1991: 650), although most anthropologists abhor this definition. Ethnoscience helps to understand how people develop with different forms of knowledge and beliefs, and focuses on the ecological and historical contributions people have been given (Atran, 1991: 650). Tim Ingold
describes ethnoscience as being a cross-discipline (2000: 160). He writes that ethnoscience is based on increased collaboration between social sciences
and humanities
(e.g., anthropology
, sociology
, psychology
, and philosophy
) with natural sciences such as biology
, ecology
, or medicine
(Ingold, 2000: 406-7). At the same time, ethnoscience is increasingly transdisciplinary in its nature (Ingold, 2000: 407).
Of course, naturally over time, the ways in which data has been collected and studied has changed and it has evolved, becoming more detailed and specific (Urry, 1972: 45). The ideas, mechanics, and methods of ethnoscience evolved from something else- a combination of several things. This pretext amalgamation of theories, processes, and –isms led to the evolution of today’s ethnoscience.
established cultural relativism
as an approach to understanding indigenous scientific practices (Uddin, 2005: 980). Cultural relativism identifies people’s differences and shows how they are a result of the social, historical, and geographical conditions (Uddin, 2005: 980). Boas is known for his work in Northern Vancouver, Canada, working with the Kwakwaka'wakw
Indians, which is where he established the importance of culture (Uddin, 2005: 980). Lévi-Strauss’ structuralism
was a strong contributor to the ideas of ethnoscience (Uddin, 2005: 980). It?, itself, was the leading idea of providing structure to the research and a guide to organizing and relating different cultures. “Ethnoscience refers to a ‘reduction of chaos’ achieved by a particular culture, rather than to the ‘highest possible and conscious degree’ to which such chaos may be reduced;” basically, the ethnoscience of a society creates its culture (Sturtevant, 1964: 100). Much of the influence of anthropology, e.g., geographical determinism, was through the contributions of Jean Bodin
(Harris, 1968: 42). In his text, he tried to explain why “northern people were faithful, loyal to the government, cruel, and sexually uninterested, compared to why southern people were malicious, craft, wise, expert in science but ill-adapted to political activity (Harris, 1968: 52).” The Greek historian, Polybius
, asserted “we mortals have an irresistible tendency to yield to climatic influences; and to this cause, and no other, may be traced the great distinctions that prevail among us in character, physical formation, complexion, as well as in most of our habits…” (quoted in Harris, 1968: 41).
Another aspect of anthropology prior to ethnoscience is enculturation
. Newton and Newton described enculturation as a process whereby the novice, or “outsider,” learns what is important to the “insider” (1998). Marvin Harris
writes, “One of [enculturation’s] most important technical expressions is the doctrine of ‘psychic unity,’ the belief that in the study of sociocultural differences, hereditary (genetic) differences cancel each other out, leaving ‘experience’ as the most significant variable” (Harris, 1968: 15). This is one of the many starts of people opening up to the idea that just because people are different, doesn’t mean they are wrong in their thinking. Harris describes how religious beliefs hinder and affect the progress of anthropology and ethnography
. The moral beliefs and restrictions of religion fought against anthropological ideas, possibly due to (especially at the time) to the newly hyped idea of evolutionism
and Darwinism
(Harris, 1968).
Bronislaw Malinowski
was one of many who contributed heavily to the precursor of ethnoscience. His earlier work brought attention to sociological studies; his earliest publication focused on a family in Australia
, using a sociological study perspective (Harris, 1968: 547). After the First World War, anthropological work was at a stand still; nothing had evolved, if not regressed (Urry, 1972: 54). This allowed him to start from scratch, and rebuild his ideas and methods (Harris, 1968: 547).
Later, however, Malinowski branched out to political evolution during World War II
. The period after World War II is what led to ethnoscience; anthropologists learned their skills could be applied to problems that were affecting modern societies (Mead, 1973: 1). Malinowski said “… with his tables of kinship terms, genealogies, maps, plans and diagrams, proves an extensive and big organization, shows the contribution of the tribe, of the clan, of the family, and he gives a picture of the natives subjected to a strict code of behavior and good manners, to which in comparison the life at the Court of Versailles or Escurial
was free and easy” (1922: 10). After World War II, there was an extreme amount of growth in the anthropological field, not only with research opportunities but academically, as well (Mead, 1973: 2).
The anthropologist Robin Horton, who taught at several Nigerian universities, considered the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples as incorporated within conceptual world views that bear certain similarities to, and differences from, the modern scientific worldview. Like modern science, traditional thought provides a theoretical structure that "places things in a causal order wider than that provided by common sense" (Horton, 1967, p. 53). In contrast to modern science, he saw traditional thought as having a limited awareness of theoretical alternatives and, consequently, displaying "an absolute acceptance of the established theoretical tenets" (Horton, 1967, pp. 155–6).
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of related methods and processes that preceded ethnoscience. Ethnoscience is just another way to study the human culture and the way people interact in society. Taking a look at the ideas and analyses prior to ethnoscience can help understand why it was developed in the first place. Although, it is not widely used and there is criticism on both ends, ethnoscience allows for a more comprehensive way to collect data and patterns of a people. This is not to say the process is its best or that there will be nothing better. That is the best part: everything evolves, even thought. Just as the ideas did in the past, they can improve over time and regress over time but change is inevitable.
Since an ethnographer is not able to physically enter inside an indigenous persons mind, it is essential to not only create a setting or question-answer format to understand perspective but to analyze semantics and word order of given answer to derive an emic understanding. The main focus on a particular component of the languages is placed on its lexicon
. The terms “etic” and “emic” are derived from the linguistic
terms of “phonetic” and “phonemic.”
As introduced by Gregory Cajete
,some limitations the concept of indigenous knowledge, is the potential to bypass non-indigenous knowledge as pertinent and valuable. The labels of “indigenous” are overly accepted by those who seek more support by outsiders to further their cause. There might also be an unequal distribution of knowledge amongst a tribe or peoples. There is also the idea that culture bound by environment. Some theorists conclude that indigenous people’s culture is not operated by mental concentrations but solely by the earth that surrounds them. Some theorists go the extent to state that biological processes are based upon the availability, of lack thereof, environmental resources. The methods for sustainability are founded through the workings of the land. These techniques are exercised from the basis of tradition. The importance of the combination of ecological process, social structures, environmental ethics and spiritual ecology are crucial to the expression of the true connection between the natural world and “ecological consciousness.”
The origin of Ethnoscience began between the years 1960 to 1965; deriving from the concept of “ethno- + science”. Ethno- a combining form meaning “race,” “culture,” “people,” used in the formation of compound words: ethnography. The two concepts later emerged into “ethno-science.” The origin of the word ‘science’ involves the empiric observation of measurable quantities and the testing of hypotheses to falsify or support them.
“Ethnoscience refers to the system of knowledge and cognition typical of a given culture...to put it another way a culture itself amounts to the sum of a given society’s folk classifications, all of that society’s ethnoscience, its particular ways of classifying its material and social universe” (Videbeck and Pia, 1966). The aim of ethnoscience is to gain a more complete description of cultural knowledge. Ethnoscience has been successful used on several studies of given cultures relating to their linguists, folk taxonomy, and how they classify their foods, animals and plants.
Researchers can use linguistics to study what a given culture considers important in a given situation or unforeseen event, and can rank those potential situations in terms of their likelihood to recur. In addition, “understanding the contingencies is helpful in the task of comprehending folk taxonomies on the one hand, and, on the other, an understanding of the taxonomy is required for a full scale appreciation of criteria considered relevant in a given culture (Videbeck and Pia, 1966).
The roots of ethnoscience can be traced back to influential anthropologists such as Franz Boas
, Bronislaw Malinowski
, and Benjamin Whorf
who attempted to understand other cultures from and insider's perspective. Ward Goodenough
is accredited for bringing ethnoscience to the stage when he define cultural systems of knowledge by stating:
In order to properly put ethnoscience in context we must first understand the definition of ethnoscience. it is defined as "an attempt at cultural description from a totally emic perspective (a perspective in ethnography that uses the concepts and categories that are relevant and meaningful to the culture that is insider analysis) standpoint, this eliminating all of the ethnographer's own categories." (Morey and Luthans 27) Ethnoscience is also a way of learning and understanding how an individual or group perceive their environment and how they fit in with their environment as reflected in their own words and actions.
Ethnoscience has many techniques when applied to an emic perspective. Ethnosemantics, ethnographic semantics, ethnographic ethnoscience, formal analysis, and componential analysis are the terms that apply to the practice of ethnoscience. Ethnosemantics looks at the meaning of words in order to place them in context of the culture being studied. It allows for taxonomy of a certain part of the culture being looked at so that there is a clear breakdown which in turn leads to a deeper understanding of the subject at hand. Ethnographic semantics are very similar to cognitive anthropology in that its primary focus is the intellectual and rational perspectives of the culture being studied. Ethnographic semantics specifically looks at how language is used throughout the culture. Lastly, ethnographic ethnoscience is related to ethnosemantics such that, it uses a taxonomic system to understand how cultural knowledge is accessible through language. Ethnographic ethnoscience uses similar classification systems for cultural domains like ethnobotany and ethnoanatomy. Again, ethnoscience is a way of understanding a how a culture sees itself through its own language. Understanding the cultural language allows the ethnographer to have a deeper and more intimate understanding of the culture.
Origins of Ethnoscience
Ethnoscience’s focus was not always different from the ideas of “cognitive anthropologyCognitive anthropology
Cognitive anthropology is an approach within cultural anthropology in which scholars seek to explain patterns of shared knowledge, cultural innovation, and transmission over time and space using the methods and theories of the cognitive sciences often through close collaboration with historians,...
”, “component analysis,” or “the New Ethnography”; it is a specialization of indigenous
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
knowledge systems, such as Ethno-botany, ethno-zoology, ethno-medicine, etc. (Atran, 1991: 595)”. According to Scott Atran
Scott Atran
Scott Atran is an American and French anthropologist.-Education and early career:Atran was born in New York City in 1952 and he received his PhD in anthropology from Columbia University. While a student at Columbia, he became assistant to anthropologist Margaret Mead at the American Museum of...
, ethnoscience looks at culture with a scientific perspective (1991: 650), although most anthropologists abhor this definition. Ethnoscience helps to understand how people develop with different forms of knowledge and beliefs, and focuses on the ecological and historical contributions people have been given (Atran, 1991: 650). Tim Ingold
Tim Ingold
Tim Ingold is a British social anthropologist, currently Chair of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen. He was educated at Leighton Park School and Cambridge University...
describes ethnoscience as being a cross-discipline (2000: 160). He writes that ethnoscience is based on increased collaboration between social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
and humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
(e.g., anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
, sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
) with natural sciences such as biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
, or medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
(Ingold, 2000: 406-7). At the same time, ethnoscience is increasingly transdisciplinary in its nature (Ingold, 2000: 407).
Of course, naturally over time, the ways in which data has been collected and studied has changed and it has evolved, becoming more detailed and specific (Urry, 1972: 45). The ideas, mechanics, and methods of ethnoscience evolved from something else- a combination of several things. This pretext amalgamation of theories, processes, and –isms led to the evolution of today’s ethnoscience.
Early Approaches of Ethnoscience
Early on, Franz BoasFranz Boas
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
established cultural relativism
Cultural relativism
Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual human's beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual's own culture. This principle was established as axiomatic in anthropological research by Franz Boas in the first few decades of the 20th century and...
as an approach to understanding indigenous scientific practices (Uddin, 2005: 980). Cultural relativism identifies people’s differences and shows how they are a result of the social, historical, and geographical conditions (Uddin, 2005: 980). Boas is known for his work in Northern Vancouver, Canada, working with the Kwakwaka'wakw
Kwakwaka'wakw
The Kwakwaka'wakw are an Indigenous group of First Nations peoples, numbering about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the adjoining mainland and islands.Kwakwaka'wakw translates as "Those who speak Kwak'wala", describing the collective nations within the area that...
Indians, which is where he established the importance of culture (Uddin, 2005: 980). Lévi-Strauss’ structuralism
Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
was a strong contributor to the ideas of ethnoscience (Uddin, 2005: 980). It?, itself, was the leading idea of providing structure to the research and a guide to organizing and relating different cultures. “Ethnoscience refers to a ‘reduction of chaos’ achieved by a particular culture, rather than to the ‘highest possible and conscious degree’ to which such chaos may be reduced;” basically, the ethnoscience of a society creates its culture (Sturtevant, 1964: 100). Much of the influence of anthropology, e.g., geographical determinism, was through the contributions of Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin was a French jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse. He is best known for his theory of sovereignty; he was also an influential writer on demonology....
(Harris, 1968: 42). In his text, he tried to explain why “northern people were faithful, loyal to the government, cruel, and sexually uninterested, compared to why southern people were malicious, craft, wise, expert in science but ill-adapted to political activity (Harris, 1968: 52).” The Greek historian, Polybius
Polybius
Polybius , Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220–146 BC in detail. The work describes in part the rise of the Roman Republic and its gradual domination over Greece...
, asserted “we mortals have an irresistible tendency to yield to climatic influences; and to this cause, and no other, may be traced the great distinctions that prevail among us in character, physical formation, complexion, as well as in most of our habits…” (quoted in Harris, 1968: 41).
Another aspect of anthropology prior to ethnoscience is enculturation
Enculturation
Enculturation is the process by which a person learns the requirements of the culture by which he or she is surrounded, and acquires values and behaviours that are appropriate or necessary in that culture. As part of this process, the influences which limit, direct, or shape the individual include...
. Newton and Newton described enculturation as a process whereby the novice, or “outsider,” learns what is important to the “insider” (1998). Marvin Harris
Marvin Harris
Marvin Harris was an American anthropologist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. A prolific writer, he was highly influential in the development of cultural materialism...
writes, “One of [enculturation’s] most important technical expressions is the doctrine of ‘psychic unity,’ the belief that in the study of sociocultural differences, hereditary (genetic) differences cancel each other out, leaving ‘experience’ as the most significant variable” (Harris, 1968: 15). This is one of the many starts of people opening up to the idea that just because people are different, doesn’t mean they are wrong in their thinking. Harris describes how religious beliefs hinder and affect the progress of anthropology and ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
. The moral beliefs and restrictions of religion fought against anthropological ideas, possibly due to (especially at the time) to the newly hyped idea of evolutionism
Evolutionism
Evolutionism refers to the biological concept of evolution, specifically to a widely held 19th century belief that organisms are intrinsically bound to increase in complexity. The belief was extended to include cultural evolution and social evolution...
and Darwinism
Darwinism
Darwinism is a set of movements and concepts related to ideas of transmutation of species or of evolution, including some ideas with no connection to the work of Charles Darwin....
(Harris, 1968).
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bronisław Kasper Malinowski was a Polish-born- British-naturalized anthropologist, one of the most important 20th-century anthropologists.From 1910, Malinowski studied exchange and economics at the London School of Economics under Seligman and Westermarck, analysing patterns of exchange in...
was one of many who contributed heavily to the precursor of ethnoscience. His earlier work brought attention to sociological studies; his earliest publication focused on a family in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, using a sociological study perspective (Harris, 1968: 547). After the First World War, anthropological work was at a stand still; nothing had evolved, if not regressed (Urry, 1972: 54). This allowed him to start from scratch, and rebuild his ideas and methods (Harris, 1968: 547).
Later, however, Malinowski branched out to political evolution during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The period after World War II is what led to ethnoscience; anthropologists learned their skills could be applied to problems that were affecting modern societies (Mead, 1973: 1). Malinowski said “… with his tables of kinship terms, genealogies, maps, plans and diagrams, proves an extensive and big organization, shows the contribution of the tribe, of the clan, of the family, and he gives a picture of the natives subjected to a strict code of behavior and good manners, to which in comparison the life at the Court of Versailles or Escurial
Escurial
Escurial is a village in Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain....
was free and easy” (1922: 10). After World War II, there was an extreme amount of growth in the anthropological field, not only with research opportunities but academically, as well (Mead, 1973: 2).
The anthropologist Robin Horton, who taught at several Nigerian universities, considered the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples as incorporated within conceptual world views that bear certain similarities to, and differences from, the modern scientific worldview. Like modern science, traditional thought provides a theoretical structure that "places things in a causal order wider than that provided by common sense" (Horton, 1967, p. 53). In contrast to modern science, he saw traditional thought as having a limited awareness of theoretical alternatives and, consequently, displaying "an absolute acceptance of the established theoretical tenets" (Horton, 1967, pp. 155–6).
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of related methods and processes that preceded ethnoscience. Ethnoscience is just another way to study the human culture and the way people interact in society. Taking a look at the ideas and analyses prior to ethnoscience can help understand why it was developed in the first place. Although, it is not widely used and there is criticism on both ends, ethnoscience allows for a more comprehensive way to collect data and patterns of a people. This is not to say the process is its best or that there will be nothing better. That is the best part: everything evolves, even thought. Just as the ideas did in the past, they can improve over time and regress over time but change is inevitable.
Development of Ethnoscience
Ethnoscience is a new term and study that came into anthropological theory in the 1960s. Often referred to as "indigenous knowledge," Ethnoscience introduces a perspective based on native perceptions. It is based on a complete emic perspective, which excludes all observations, interpretations and or any personal notions belonging to the ethnographer. The taxonomy and classification of indigenous systems, to name a few, used to categorize plants, animals, religion and life is adapted from a linguistic analysis. The concept of “Native Science” is also related to the understanding the role of the environment intertwined with the meaning humans place upon their lives. Understanding the language and the native people’s linguistic system is one method to understand a native people’s system of knowledge of organization. Not only is there categorization for things pertaining to nature and culture thought language, but more importantly and complex is the relationship between environment and culture. Ethnoscience looks at the intricacies of the connection between culture and its surrounding environment. There are also potential limitations and shortcomings in interpreting these systems of knowledge as a dictation of culture and behavior.Since an ethnographer is not able to physically enter inside an indigenous persons mind, it is essential to not only create a setting or question-answer format to understand perspective but to analyze semantics and word order of given answer to derive an emic understanding. The main focus on a particular component of the languages is placed on its lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
. The terms “etic” and “emic” are derived from the linguistic
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
terms of “phonetic” and “phonemic.”
As introduced by Gregory Cajete
Gregory Cajete
Dr. Gregory A. Cajete is a Tewa author and professor from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. He has pioneered reconciling indigenous perspectives in sciences with a Western academic setting...
,some limitations the concept of indigenous knowledge, is the potential to bypass non-indigenous knowledge as pertinent and valuable. The labels of “indigenous” are overly accepted by those who seek more support by outsiders to further their cause. There might also be an unequal distribution of knowledge amongst a tribe or peoples. There is also the idea that culture bound by environment. Some theorists conclude that indigenous people’s culture is not operated by mental concentrations but solely by the earth that surrounds them. Some theorists go the extent to state that biological processes are based upon the availability, of lack thereof, environmental resources. The methods for sustainability are founded through the workings of the land. These techniques are exercised from the basis of tradition. The importance of the combination of ecological process, social structures, environmental ethics and spiritual ecology are crucial to the expression of the true connection between the natural world and “ecological consciousness.”
The origin of Ethnoscience began between the years 1960 to 1965; deriving from the concept of “ethno- + science”. Ethno- a combining form meaning “race,” “culture,” “people,” used in the formation of compound words: ethnography. The two concepts later emerged into “ethno-science.” The origin of the word ‘science’ involves the empiric observation of measurable quantities and the testing of hypotheses to falsify or support them.
“Ethnoscience refers to the system of knowledge and cognition typical of a given culture...to put it another way a culture itself amounts to the sum of a given society’s folk classifications, all of that society’s ethnoscience, its particular ways of classifying its material and social universe” (Videbeck and Pia, 1966). The aim of ethnoscience is to gain a more complete description of cultural knowledge. Ethnoscience has been successful used on several studies of given cultures relating to their linguists, folk taxonomy, and how they classify their foods, animals and plants.
Ethnolinguistics
Ethnoscience is the examination of the perceptions, knowledge, and classifications of the world as reflected in their use of language, which can help anthropologists understand a given culture. By using an ethnographic approach to studying a culture and learning their lexicon and syntax they are able to gain more knowledge in understanding how a particular culture classifies its material and social universe. In addition, this approach “adopted provides simultaneously a point at which the discipline of linguistics, or at least some of its general attitudes, may sensibly be used in anthropology and as a means of gaining insight not only into the nature of man but also into the nature of culture” (Videbeck and Pia, 1966).Researchers can use linguistics to study what a given culture considers important in a given situation or unforeseen event, and can rank those potential situations in terms of their likelihood to recur. In addition, “understanding the contingencies is helpful in the task of comprehending folk taxonomies on the one hand, and, on the other, an understanding of the taxonomy is required for a full scale appreciation of criteria considered relevant in a given culture (Videbeck and Pia, 1966).
Taxonomy and Classification
Ethnoscience can be used to analyze the kinship terminology of a given culture, using their language and according to how they view members of their society. Taxonomies “are models of analysis whose purpose is the description of particular types of hierarchical relationships between members of a given set of elements” (Perchonock and Werner, 1969). For example, in our society we classify family groups by giving members the title of father, mother, sister, daughter, brother, son, grandfather, grandmother, etc.System of Classification – Among Cultures
Ethnoscience deals with how a given culture classifies certain principles in addition to how it is express through their language. By understanding a given culture through how they view the world, anthropologists attempt to eliminate any bias through translation as well as categorized their principles in their own ways. “The new methods, which focus on the discovery and description of folk systems, have come to be known as Ethnoscience. Ethnoscience analysis has thus far concentrated on systems of classification within such cultural and linguistic domains as colors, plants, and medicines.” (Perchonock and Werner, 1969) An ethno-scientific approach can be used to better understand a given culture and their knowledge of their culture. Using an ethnographic approach can help anthropologists understand how that given culture views and categorizes their own foods, animal kingdom, medicines, as well as plants.Contemporary Research
Ethnoscience can be effectively summed up as a classification system for a particular culture in the same way that a botanist would use a taxonomic system for the classification of plant species. Everything from class levels, food consumption, clothing, and material culture objects would be subjected to a taxonomic classification system. In essence, ethnoscience is a way of classifying cultural systems in a structured order to better understand the culture.The roots of ethnoscience can be traced back to influential anthropologists such as Franz Boas
Franz Boas
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
, Bronislaw Malinowski
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bronisław Kasper Malinowski was a Polish-born- British-naturalized anthropologist, one of the most important 20th-century anthropologists.From 1910, Malinowski studied exchange and economics at the London School of Economics under Seligman and Westermarck, analysing patterns of exchange in...
, and Benjamin Whorf
Benjamin Whorf
In studying the cause of a fire which had started under the conditions just described, Whorf concluded that it was thinking of the "empty" gasoline drums as "empty" in the meaning described in the first definition above, that is as "inert," which led to a fire he investigated...
who attempted to understand other cultures from and insider's perspective. Ward Goodenough
Ward Goodenough
Ward H. Goodenough is a U.S. Anthropologist, who has made contributions to kinship studies, linguistic anthropology, cross-cultural studies, and cognitive anthropology. Born May 30, 1919, in Cambridge Massachusetts, he attended Groton School in Groton Massachusetts. He then earned a B.A. in 1940...
is accredited for bringing ethnoscience to the stage when he define cultural systems of knowledge by stating:
"A societies culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members. Culture is not a material phenomenon; it does not consist of things, behavior,or emotions. It is rather an organization of these things. It is the form of things that people have in mind, their models for perceiving, relating, and otherwise interpreting them."
(Goodenough 1957:167)
In order to properly put ethnoscience in context we must first understand the definition of ethnoscience. it is defined as "an attempt at cultural description from a totally emic perspective (a perspective in ethnography that uses the concepts and categories that are relevant and meaningful to the culture that is insider analysis) standpoint, this eliminating all of the ethnographer's own categories." (Morey and Luthans 27) Ethnoscience is also a way of learning and understanding how an individual or group perceive their environment and how they fit in with their environment as reflected in their own words and actions.
Ethnoscience has many techniques when applied to an emic perspective. Ethnosemantics, ethnographic semantics, ethnographic ethnoscience, formal analysis, and componential analysis are the terms that apply to the practice of ethnoscience. Ethnosemantics looks at the meaning of words in order to place them in context of the culture being studied. It allows for taxonomy of a certain part of the culture being looked at so that there is a clear breakdown which in turn leads to a deeper understanding of the subject at hand. Ethnographic semantics are very similar to cognitive anthropology in that its primary focus is the intellectual and rational perspectives of the culture being studied. Ethnographic semantics specifically looks at how language is used throughout the culture. Lastly, ethnographic ethnoscience is related to ethnosemantics such that, it uses a taxonomic system to understand how cultural knowledge is accessible through language. Ethnographic ethnoscience uses similar classification systems for cultural domains like ethnobotany and ethnoanatomy. Again, ethnoscience is a way of understanding a how a culture sees itself through its own language. Understanding the cultural language allows the ethnographer to have a deeper and more intimate understanding of the culture.
See also
- Ethnoastronomy
- EthnobiologyEthnobiology]Ethnobiology is the scientific study of dynamic relationships between peoples, biota, and environments, from the distant past to the immediate present....
- EthnobotanyEthnobotanyEthnobotany is the scientific study of the relationships that exist between people and plants....
- EthnoecologyEthnoecologyEthnoecology is the scientific study of the way different groups of people in different locations understand ecosystems around them; the environments in which they live; and their relationship with these....
- EthnomathematicsEthnomathematicsIn mathematics education, ethnomathematics is the study of the relationship between mathematics and culture . Often associated with "cultures without written expression" , it may also be defined as "'the mathematics which is practised among identifiable cultural groups'" In mathematics education,...
- EthnomedicineEthnomedicineEthnomedicine is a sub-field of ethnobotany or medical anthropology that deals with the study of traditional medicines: not only those that have relevant written sources Ethnomedicine is a sub-field of ethnobotany or medical anthropology that deals with the study of traditional medicines: not only...
- EthnopharmacyEthnopharmacyEthnopharmacy is the interdisciplinary science that investigates the perception and use of pharmaceuticals , within a given human society....
- EthnozoologyEthnozoologyEthnozoology is the study of the past and present interrelationships between human cultures and the animals in their environment. It includes classification and naming of zoological forms, cultural knowedge and use of wild and domestic animals...
- Traditional knowledgeTraditional knowledgeTraditional knowledge , indigenous knowledge , traditional environmental knowledge and local knowledge generally refer to the long-standing traditions and practices of certain regional, indigenous, or local communities. Traditional knowledge also encompasses the wisdom, knowledge, and teachings...