1.1 Folk Taxonomy

Folk taxonomies have hierarchical levels similar to formal biological classifications of kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species (Berlin, 1992). In folk taxonomy, the common levels are life from, generic, specific and varietal.

1.1.1 Life form

A high level category of plants or animals that share some general shape or characteristic of their morphology. Examples:  tree, vine, bush, fish, snake, bird, wug, or mammal.

1.1.2 Generic

The most common, basic level. Examples are dog, oak, grass, rice, ant.  Folk genera often do not correspond to scientific genera but may correspond to Linnaean species or families.  For instance, “dog” is a folk genus, but “grass” is a Linnaean species folk genus, and a Linnaean family (actually a little less, since people generally do not recognize maize, etc. as grasses); “rice” is a folk genus, but two Linnaean; species and “ant” is a folk genus, but a Linnaean family, formicidae.

1.1.3 Specific

Usually separated from each other by a few characteristics.  In some languages such as Spanish, Bahasa (spoken in Indonesia and Malaysia), the generic name comes first, as in a Linnaean name. In other languages such as English, it is the other way around. The specific name tends to be a pneumonic device, e.g., color, shape, utility, etc. that makes the name easy to remember.

1.1.4 Varietal

Common in crops such as the potato. Examples are papa imilla, papa imilla negra, and papa imilla blanca.