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Why the Porcupine Is not a Bird
Explorations in the Folk Zoology of an Eastern Indonesian People
Gregory Forth (Author)
9781487500047
Hardback, published 26 February 2016
400 pages, 2 figures, 3 maps
22.9 x 16.5 x 2.5 cm, 0.7 kg
‘This book is valuable for specialists in Indonesia and in folk classification systems.’ ‘A thought provoking monograph based on authors’ thirty years of field research. It is a good book to think with.’
Why the Porcupine Is Not a Bird is a comprehensive analysis of knowledge of animals among the Nage people of central Flores in Indonesia. Gregory Forth sheds light on the ongoing anthropological debate surrounding the categorization of animals in small-scale non-Western societies. Forth’s detailed discussion of how the Nage people conceptualize their relationship to the animal world covers the naming and classification of animals, their symbolic and practical use, and the ecology of central Flores and its change over the years. His study reveals the empirical basis of Nage classifications, which align surprisingly well with the taxonomies of modern biologists. It also shows how the Nage employ systems of symbolic and utilitarian classification distinct from their general taxonomy. A tremendous source of ethnographic detail, Why the Porcupine Is Not a Bird is an important contribution to the fields of ethnobiology and cognitive anthropology.
Preface Note on Orthography Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. Investigating Folk Knowledge: A Methodological Prospectus Chapter 3. Animals, Humans, and Other Mammals Part 1: Mammals Chapter 4. Animals of the Village: Domestic and Partly Domestic Mammals Chapter 5. The Giant Rat of Flores and Other Never Domesticated Mammals Chapter 6. Symbolic and Utilitarian Dimensions of Mammal Categories: Varieties of Special Purpose Classification Part 2: Non-mammals Chapter 7. Birds, or “Creatures that Fly High in the Sky” Chapter 8. Snakes: The Life-form Nipa Chapter 9. Neither Fish nor Fowl: A Non-mammalian Miscellany Chapter 10. Things with Tails but without Backbones: Invertebrates in Nage Folk Zoology Part 3: Comparisons and Curiosities Chapter 11. What’s in an Animal Name: Comparative Observations on Animal Nomenclature, Classification, and Symbolism Chapter 12. When Birds Turn Into Mammals and Mammals into Fish: Nage “Beliefs” about Animal Transformation Chapter 13. Animal Mysteries and Disappearing Animals Chapter 14. Concluding Remarks Appendix 1. Terms for Human and Animal Body Parts Appendix 2. Growth Stages in Several Wild Animals Appendix 3. Nage Invertebrate Categories Appendix 4. Animal Names Used as Personal Names in Central Nage