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The Semantics of Local Knowledge: Using Ethnosemantics to Study Folk Taxonomies Represented in the Archaeological Record

2009; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 65; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3998/jar.0521004.0065.401

2153-3806

Christine S. VanPool, Todd L. VanPool,

Language and cultural evolution

A culture's semantic structure reflects and affects local knowledge (the conceptual structure used to interact with the environment). Archaeological analysis of iconography reflecting folk taxonomies and other aspects of local knowledge will consequently provide insight into many different aspects of past cultures. A methodology for modeling folk taxonomy is introduced. Both Linnaean and folk taxonomies are based on gross morphological traits, creating correspondence between them at the generic-species level. However, differences are likely at higher taxonomic levels and will be portrayed by depictions of "anomalous" taxa at odds with Linnaean taxonomy. Using archaeological context, symbolic associations, and analogy, archaeologists can use these anomalies to determine the underlying semantic connections. We apply this model to Casas Grandes effigies and find that owls, rattlesnakes, coral snakes, and shamans are associated with each other under the semantic domain "night" and are central to Medio period cosmology and leadership.