Folkbiology of freshwater fish

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2003.12.005

Cognition

Volume 99, Issue 3, April 2006, Pages 237-273

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2003.12.005 Get rights and content

Abstract

Cross-cultural comparisons of categorization often confound cultural factors with expertise. This paper reports four experiments on the conceptual behavior of Native American and majority-culture fish experts. The two groups live in the same general area and engage in essentially the same set of fishing-related behaviors. Nonetheless, cultural differences were consistently observed. Majority-culture fish experts tended to sort fish into taxonomic and goal-related categories. They also showed an influence of goals on probes of ecological relations, tending to answer in terms of relations involving adult fish. Native American fish experts, in contrast, were more likely to sort ecologically. They were also more likely to see positive and reciprocal ecological relations, tending to answer in terms of relations involving the full life cycle of fish. Further experiments support the view that the cultural differences do not reflect different knowledge bases but rather differences in the organization and accessibility of knowledge. At a minimum the results suggest that similar activities within a well-structured domain do not necessarily lead to common conceptualizations.

Section snippets

Experiment 1: spontaneous sorting

The first study examined spontaneous, hierarchical sorting of fish species by majority culture and Menominee Indian fish experts. Although we have provided some rationale for expecting cultural differences, there is previous literature that would support the expectation of striking similarities. The “correlational structure” of information in the environment would seem to enforce cross-group agreement, as researchers such as Berlin (1992) have noted (see Malt, 1995 for a review). Although Medin

Experiment 2: ecological sorting

Experiment 1 indicated that experts of the two cultural groups share a general model with respect to certain features of freshwater fish, but that the two groups have also distinct cultural models. Within these different cultural themes, Menominee fish experts are more concerned with ecological relationships than their majority-culture counterparts. In turn, majority-culture experts are more influenced by goal orientation and morphological features of the species.

Experiment 2 was conducted to

Experiment 3: species interaction

In Experiment 1 we presented data indicating a shared model for both the Menominee and majority-culture experts, with the Menominee having a specific and distinct consensual model based on ecological relationships. In Experiment 2 we found no differences in knowledge of fish habitats. In Experiment 3 we explicitly targeted expert ecological knowledge in the form of understandings of fish–fish interactions.

On many grounds one would not expect to observe group differences in perceived fish–fish

Experiment 4

One way to examine the role of knowledge versus access is to compare speeded versus unspeeded probes. In Experiment 3 we probed for over 400 relations in less than an hour, which means that experts were answering questions at the rate of about 6–10 per minute (6–10 s per item). In the course of related interviews conducted about a year after Experiment 3, we used 34 pairs of fish–fish interactions as a filler task. This filler task went at a leisurely pace (typically this part lasted 15–20 min or

General discussion

We began this paper with three related questions concerning culture, expertise and the folkbiology of freshwater fish. Does expertise lead to a convergence on the structure and relational facts inherent in nature? Does this hypothesized convergence extend to both categories and their conceptualization (the salient information associated with them)? Do culture variables play any role beyond that reflected by characteristic practices and activities? Previous work has shown that different kinds of

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Folkbiology of freshwater fish

Abstract

Section snippets

Experiment 1: spontaneous sorting

Experiment 2: ecological sorting

Experiment 3: species interaction

Experiment 4

General discussion

Cognition

Cognition

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

Journal of Memory and Language

Cognitive Development

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

Folkbiology and the anthropology of science: Cognitive universals and cultural particulars

Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Folkecology and commons management in the Maya Lowlands

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA

Folkecology, cultural epidemiology and the spirit of the commons: A garden experiment in the Maya lowlands

Current Anthropology

Ethnobiological classification: Principles of categorization of plants and animals in traditional societies

Exchange of varieties and information between aguaruna manioc cultivators

American Anthropologist

Agreement between biological classification systems is not dependent on cultural transmission

American Anthropologist

Natural and human sources of cross-cultural agreement in ornithological classification

American Anthropologist

Form or function: A comparison of expert and novice judgements of similarities among fish

American Anthropologist

Emerging differentiation of folkbiology and folkpsychology: Attributions of biological and psychological properties to living things

Child Development