when is a fish not a fish? questions raised by a nage life-form category

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ID: 249693
2012
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Abstract

Speakers of a Central-Malayo-Polynesian language, the Nage inhabit the central region of the eastern Indonesian island of Flores. Their folk taxonomy of animals (ana wa) contains three named life-form taxa, one of which is ika, fish. A review of component folk-generic taxa, however, reveals that Nage do not classify five kinds of freshwater fish as ‘fish’ (ika), even though they further apply ika to various marine fish (including sharks and rays) as well as to marine mammals. The article considers this peculiarity of Nage folk zoological taxonomy, and how it might affect an understanding of ika as denoting a ‘fish’ life-form taxon. The main conclusion is that the five excluded categories—distinguished largely on morphological and behavioural grounds, and  conveniently designated as the ‘tebhu cluster’, after one of their members—are contrasted primarily with freshwater species which Nage do classify as ‘fish’ (ika). Specified by name as ika lowo (‘river fish’), these are further contrasted with another named folk-intermediate taxon of ‘marine fish’ (ika mesi). From this, it is argued that, as a life-form category, ika should be understood as implicitly including the five members of the ‘tebhu cluster’ as a third, albeit covert, folk-intermediate taxon.

Reference Key
forth2012ethnobiologywhen Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors ;Gregory Forth
Journal journal of plant nutrition
Year 2012
DOI
10.14237/ebl.3.2012.41
URL
http://ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/article/view/41
Keywords
fish freshwater fish marine fish anthropogeography folk taxonomyhuman ecology

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