Intellectualist premise of folk names support their restoration in formal taxonomy

Franco, F. Merlin

doi:10.32859/era.21.26.1-3

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Ethnobiologists have recognised the importance of folk names as repositories of TK long ago. Folk names help us understand how communities recognise and utilise plants and animals known to them (Berlin 1992;Franco 2021;Sunderland 2004). They also provide us information on the richness, diversity, phenology, and ecology of taxa, which helps in developing community-specific conservation and management plans (Pinto et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Folk Plant Names Are Condensed Forms of Traditional Knowledge: Case Study with the Urang Kanekes of Banten, Indonesia

2022

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A new wave of research emerging in the last two decades has turned the focus of linguistic ethnobiology on folk names used by local communities to denote biota. Studies have used traditional knowledge or linguistic approaches to unravel the elaborate body of knowledge used to generate folk names and link them to their appropriate denotatum. In this chapter, we present the folk food plant names of the Kanekes community of Banten Indonesia, classifying them into barefaced or cryptic based on apparency of Traditional Knowledge (TK) encoded in them. Barefaced folk names are self-explanatory names where the TK on the salient feature of the respective taxa is apparent. Cryptic names are those with TK either not readily comprehensible, or those containing TK on multiple taxa/entities. We found the 294 food plant names recorded by us encoding traditional knowledge related to morphology (161), ecology (45), utility (39), and quality (49) of the taxa. The majority of the names documented (172 names) are cryptic (111 metaphors, 53 metonyms, and 08 portmanteaus), while the rest are barefaced (122 names). Our study shows that cryptic names possess a remarkable ability to encode traditional knowledge on multiple taxa/entities. When folk names are lost or replaced, the traditional knowledge encoded by them is also lost. Researchers and practitioners working with local communities should therefore consider the potential of folk names as condensed forms of traditional knowledge.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Folk Plant Names Are Condensed Forms of Traditional Knowledge: Case Study with the Urang Kanekes of Banten, Indonesia

2022

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“…These activities culminated in a set of detailed but informal (presented in a discussion article) proposals (Wright & Gillman, 2022) to amend the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants ( ICN : Turland & al., 2018) by allowing the retroactive replacement of scientific names and/or epithets of plants and other organisms in favor of “indigenous names”, meaning the vernacular names used by Indigenous Peoples. The unusual (at least for taxonomists) and radical views expressed by Gillman & Wright (2020), as well as, partly, their proposals, were analyzed and either supported (fully or in part: see Knapp & al., 2020; Franco, 2021; Rummy & Rummy, 2021) or criticized in several professional articles (e.g., Knapp & al., 2020; Heenan & al., 2021; Mosyakin, 2021, 2022; Palma & Heath, 2021; Heenan, 2022a,b; McGlone & al., 2022, etc. ), to which Gillman & Wright (2021; see also Wright & Gillman, 2022) responded, usually with repeating and emphasizing their statements and opinions expressed in their first article (Gillman & Wright, 2020).…”

Section: Introductory Remarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attempts to introduce a system of national, racial and/or ethnocultural discrimination in codes of biological nomenclature should not be tolerated: Comments on some recent proposals (Wright & Gillman, 2022, etc.)

Mosyakin

2022

TAXON

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With their article "Restoring indigenous names in taxonomy", Gillman & Wright (2020) initiated a discussion that culminated in a set of proposals to amend the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) by allowing the retroactive replacement of scientific names and/or epithets of plants and other organisms in favor of "indigenous names" (vernacular names used by Indigenous Peoples). Here I emphasize several main topics and questions critically important for the suggested implementation of the proposals by Wright and Gillman. My conclusions regarding the proposals by Wright and Gillman are as follows. The "definition" of Indigenous People proposed by Wright and Gillman for the ICN is dramatically different from the working definitions and identification/self-identification criteria of Indigenous Peoples provided in the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples (United Nations, 2007) and other relevant international documents. That "definition" is vague, potentially discriminatory, may bring unnecessary conflicts, and cannot be used in practice. Nomenclatural committees and the taxonomic community as a whole should not be involved in political debates about which peoples are indigenous and which are not, which bodies represent those peoples and which do not have that right. Giving special privileges in nomenclature to some groups of Indigenous Peoples but not to other peoples with comparable levels of traditional knowledge would be an act of unexplainable and unjustified discrimination. The argument of "demonstrable chronological priority" of vernacular "indigenous" names over scientific names used by Wright and Gillman is irrelevant in biological nomenclature and taxonomy and cannot be used in practice. The proposal to allow the use of "indigenous" diacritics in biological nomenclature would result in allowance of dozens diacritic signs actually used by various Indigenous ethnic groups, and should not be accepted. The replacement procedure proposed by Wright and Gillman will not work as they intended because they failed to outline workable rules for it. Science (the scientific nomenclature of organisms included) should not be biased or distorted politically, racially, ethnically, socially, genderly, religiously or otherwise. Any attempts or proposals aimed at granting preferences in biological nomenclature to any political, racial, ethnic, social, gender, religious or other group or groups should be rejected as discriminatory acts. Consequently, the "proposals" by Wright and Gillman should be rejected by the international community of taxonomists of plants, fungi, and algae.

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Case Studies in Biocultural Diversity from Southeast Asia—Traditional Ecological Calendars, Folk Medicine and Folk Names

Franco

Knudsen

Hassan

2022

Case Studies in Biocultural Diversity From Southeast Asia

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Biocultural diversity refers to the dynamic interrelationship between the Earth’s biological, cultural, and linguistic diversity. The concept draws strength from the fact that biodiversity-rich regions of the world are also rich in cultural and linguistic diversities. This volume adds to scholarship in biocultural diversity with case studies from geographical Southeast Asia. The chapters presented in the volume, based on research in Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Northeast India demonstrate i) how traditional ecological calendars and calendar keepers serve as repositories of knowledge on landscapes and their resources, ii) the importance of folk medicine for healthcare in contemporary Southeast Asia, and iii) how folk names of flora and fauna serve as condensed forms of traditional knowledge on biodiversity. While highlighting the importance of customary ways of knowing and categorizing the environment in areas such as resource management, conservation, and healthcare, the chapters also demonstrate that traditional environmental knowledge and the practical skills which accompany it are not necessarily widely shared and are under constant threat. As Southeast Asia marches forward in pursuit of economic growth, it would also have to ensure that its biocultural diversity stays alive, nurturing local communities for generations to come.

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Intellectualist premise of folk names support their restoration in formal taxonomy

Cited by 3 publications

References 11 publications

Folk Plant Names Are Condensed Forms of Traditional Knowledge: Case Study with the Urang Kanekes of Banten, Indonesia

Folk Plant Names Are Condensed Forms of Traditional Knowledge: Case Study with the Urang Kanekes of Banten, Indonesia

Attempts to introduce a system of national, racial and/or ethnocultural discrimination in codes of biological nomenclature should not be tolerated: Comments on some recent proposals (Wright & Gillman, 2022, etc.)

Case Studies in Biocultural Diversity from Southeast Asia—Traditional Ecological Calendars, Folk Medicine and Folk Names

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