Folkbiology / Edition 1

by Douglas L. Medin, Scott Atran

Overview

The term "folkbiology" refers to people's everyday understanding of the biological world—how they perceive, categorize, and reason about living kinds. The study of folkbiology not only sheds light on human nature, it may ultimately help us make the transition to a global economy without irreparably damaging the environment or destroying local cultures.

This book takes an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together the work of researchers in anthropology, cognitive and developmental psychology, biology, and philosophy of science. The issues covered include: Are folk taxonomies a first-order approximation to classical scientific taxonomies, or are they driven more directly by utilitarian concerns? How are these category schemes linked to reasoning about natural kinds? Is there any nontrivial sense in which folk-taxonomic structures are universal? What impact does science have on folk taxonomy? Together, the chapters present the current foundations of folkbiology and indicate new directions in research.

Contributors
Scott Atran, Terry Kit-fong Au, Brent Berlin, K. David Bishop, John D. Coley, Jared Diamond, John Dupré, Roy Ellen, Susan A. Gelman, Michael T. Ghiselin, Grant Gutheil, Giyoo Hatano, Lawrence A. Hirschfeld, David L. Hull, Eugene Hunn, Kayoko Inagaki, Frank C. Keil, Daniel T. Levin, Elizabeth Lynch, Douglas L. Medin, Julia Beth Proffitt, Bethany A. Richman, Laura F. Romo, Sandra R. Waxman

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262631921
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	06/08/1999
Series:	The MIT Press
Pages:	514
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Douglas L. Medin is Louis W. Menk Professor of Psychology and Professor of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. He is the coauthor of The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature and coeditor of Folkbiology, both published by the MIT Press.

Scott Atran is Research Director in Anthropology at France's National Center for Scientific Research and Visiting Professor of Psychology and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He is the coeditor, with Douglas Medin, of Folkbiology (MIT Press, 1999).

Table of Contents

Contributors
1 Introduction
Douglas L. Medin and Scott Atran
2 Ethno-ornithology of the Ketengban People, Indonesian
New Guinea
Jared Diamond and K. David Bishop
3 Size as Limiting the Recognition of Biodiversity in
Folkbiological Classifications: One of Four Factors Governing the
Cultural Recognition of Biological Taxa
Eugene Hunn
4 How a Folkbotanical System Can Be Both Natural and
Comprehensive: One Maya Indian's View of the Plant World
Brent Berlin
5 Models of Subsistence and Ethnobiological Knowledge:
Between Extraction and Cultivation in Southeast Asia
Roy Ellen
6 Itzaj Maya Folkbiological Taxonomy: Cognitive
Universals and Cultural Particulars
Scott Atran
7 Inductive Reasoning in Folkbiological Thought
John D. Coley, Douglas L. Medin, Julia Beth Proffitt, Elizabeth
Lynch, and Scott Atran
8 The Dubbing Ceremony Revisited: Object Naming and
Categorization in Infancy and Early Childhood
Sandra R. Waxman
9 Mechanism and Explanation in the Development of
Biological Thought: The Case of Disease
Frank C. Keil, Daniel T. Levin, Bethany A. Richman, and Grant
Gutheil
10 A Developmental Perspective on Informal Biology
Giyoo Hatano and Kayoko Inagaki
11 Mechanical Causality in Children's "Folkbiology"
Terry Kit-fong Au and Laura F. Romo
12 How Biological Is Essentialism?
Susan A. Gelman and Lawrence A. Hirschfeld
13 Natural Kinds and Supraorganismal Individuals
Michael T. Ghiselin
14 Are Whales Fish?
John Dupré
15 Interdisciplinary Dissonance
David L. Hull
Index

What People are Saying About This

Ronald W. Casson

Folk Biology is an excellent collection of original articles that will be a great aid to scholars and students interested in anthropological and psychological aspects of ethnobiology.

Endorsement

Folk Biology is an excellent collection of original articles that will be a great aid to scholars and students interested in anthropological and psychological aspects of ethnobiology.—Ronald W. Casson, Department of Anthropology, Oberlin College

From the Publisher

Folk Biology is an excellent collection of original articles that will be a great aid to scholars and students interested in anthropological and psychological aspects of ethnobiology.—Ronald W. Casson, Department of Anthropology, Oberlin College

Editorial Reviews

""Folk Biology" is an excellent collection of original articles that will be a great aid to scholars and students interested in anthropological and psychological aspects of ethnobiology."--Ronald W. Casson, Department of Anthropology, Oberlin College

& quot; Folk Biology is an excellent collection of original articles that will be a great aid to scholars and students interested in anthropological and psychological aspects of ethnobiology.& quot; -- Ronald W. Casson, Department of Anthropology, Oberlin College

" "Folk Biology" is an excellent collection of original articles that will be a great aid to scholars and students interested in anthropological and psychological aspects of ethnobiology." -- Ronald W. Casson, Department of Anthropology, Oberlin College

-- Ronald W. Casson, Department of Anthropology, Oberlin College

From the Publisher