SYMBOLIC BIRDS AND IRONIC BATS: VARIETIES OF CLASSIFICATION IN NAGE FOLK ORNITHOLOGY

Abstract

Ethnobiologists and anthropologists have long recognized a distinction between “general purpose” ethnotaxonomies and specialized ways of classifying plants and animals, such as “symbolic classification.” This article on the folk ornithology of an eastern Indonesian society distinguishes between ethnotaxonomy and symbolic classification in order to consider the conceptual position of bats. Contrary to the predictions of Douglas and others, Chiropterans are shown to be peripheral to both forms of classification in a way that contrasts with values attached to both nocturnal and diurnal birds of prey.