The Folk Biology of the Tobelo People - Smithsonian Institution ...

ABSTRACT
Taylor, Paul Michael The Folk Biology of the Tobelo People: A Study in Folk Classification.
Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, number 34, 187 pages, 11 figures, 1 map,
1990.—This ethnographic study of folk biology among the Tobelo (a West Papuan-speaking
ethnic group of Halmahera Island, Maluku, Indonesia) outlines local cultural presumptions
about classifying flora and fauna, describes the system of folk biological nomenclature in terms
consistent with the morphology and syntax of the Tobelo language, and analyzes the local
system of folk classification within a posited semantic domain of "biotic forms."
In the local linguistic context, dialectal differences, multilingualism, an apparently strict
in-law name taboo, and particular speech registers for which Tobelo consider their own language
inappropriate are shown to affect word formation, the adoption of foreign plant and animal
names, and other aspects of ethnobiological classification. Culturally, the belief that names for
plants and animals were set down by ancestors vastly more familiar with local biota than are
their descendants, the notion that there is a "proper" name for virtually all easily visible plants
and animals, and that much knowledge is and should remain esoteric, justify several alternative
ways in which the Tobelo may reconcile individual or dialectal variation to determine "proper"
details of classification consistent with these presumptions.
Nomenclature is considered in detail. The importance of recognizing the lexemic status of
homonymous and polysemous terms is illustrated; and means of recognizing lexemes having the
same form as non-lexemic expressions are detailed. A morphosyntactic classification of lexemic
types is here applied to the formation of terms in this domain.
Unlabeled classes within this semantic domain (including the highest-level class BIOTIC
FORM) are posited, and new methods are presented for determining and evaluating such "covert
categories." A critique of other procedures based on perceived similarities among plants and
animals shows that the only local cultural significance of those classes may be their sudden
appearance as a result of tests designed to find them, that similarities observed may not be those
used in hierarchically relating folk taxa, and that such classes do not in any case belong in a
linguistic description. From a systematic review of Tobelo lexemes it is possible to avoid these
difficulties.
The analysis of Tobelo folk biological classification (the system of semantic relations among
usually lexically labeled classes) provides various types of evidence for the distinctiveness of a
"basic" level, and details methods for distinguishing basic terms. Taxonomic relations order the
set of hierarchically related folk classes into eleven levels: the widest or "basic" level, along with
six above and four below. Non-"regular" elements of this folk taxonomy include nonsymmetric
and disjunctive contrast, "residue" of higher-level classes, ambiguous subclass-superclass
relations, and dual structural positions of a single class in the overall hierarchic structure.
Also analyzed are other types of semantic relations among folk classes, including a
'mother'-'child' relation among FAUN AL FORMS, crosscutting and intersecting subclasses of
the basic class, and classification by growth stage and size. The Tobelo are able to use these
methods of classifying local fauna and flora to justify the observed differences among
themselves (or among Tobelo dialects) in how they classify the same plants and animals. They
even sometimes use this classificatory system to productively predict the existence of plants and
animals that have not yet been observed, much as our chemists once used the Periodic Table of
the Elements to predict the existence of elements that had not been observed.
Detailed folk classificatory, nomenclatural, and systematic botanical and zoological
information for all recorded BIOTIC FORMS is given in the appendixes, which are based upon
extensive collections of Halmaheran terrestrial and marine animals and plants, along with their
associated ethnographic information.
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION DATE is handstamped in a limited number of initial copies and is
recorded in the Institution's annual report, Smithsonian Year. COVER DESIGN: Two Tobelo
decorative winnowing baskets, made at Kampung PasirPutih in 1981. Plaited o todoku bamboo
strips (Bambusa atra Lindl.), with frames of o iwi (Calamus sp.) wrapped in strips of o buho
(Pandanus sp.). Left, human figure (seen from convex side, as basket would be displayed if hung
in a house). Right, quadripartite geometric pattern (seen from concave side, as would be seen if
winnowing rice).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Taylor, Paul Michael
The folk biology of the Tobelo people: a study in folk classification / Paul Michael Taylor.
p. cm. - (Smithsonian contributions to anthropology ; no. 34)
Includes bibliographical references.
Supt of Docs, no.: SI 1.33:34
1. Tobelo (Indonesian people)—Folklore. 2. Folklore—Indonesia—Maluku—Classification. 3. Human ecology—
Indonesia—Maluku. 4. Tobelo language—Classification. I. Title. II. Series.
GN1.S54 no. 34
[GR 3245.T62) 89-600388
301 s-dc20 CIP
[306.4'5]