Mixtepec Zapotec Ethnobiological Classification: A Preliminary Sketch and Theoretical Commentary

Authors

  • Eugene S. Hunn University of Washington

Abstract

Despite 470 years of contact with Spanish-speaking colonial powers, members of the Zapotec-speaking community of San Juan Mixtepec in the Sierra de Miahuatlan, Oaxaca, Mexico, have conserved largely intact an extensive body of knowledge about their natural environment. We have recorded to date 868 named plant taxa (of which 520 are "folk generics") and 443 of animals (of which 256 are "folk generics"). Eighteen percent of generic plant name elements are Spanish loans, which compares favourably with other conservative systems of traditional biological knowledge in southern Mexico. Mixtepec Zapotec animal classification appears to be relatively less developed than the botanical. We describe the Mixtepec Zapotec classification of oaks (Quercus spp., Fagaceae) to illustrate how precise this classification may be. Mixtepec Zapotec botanical life-form names are routinely prefixed to the names for the generic and specific taxa they include.

Downloads

Publication Facts

Metric
This article
Other articles
Peer reviewers 
0
2.4

Reviewer profiles  N/A

Author statements

Author statements
This article
Other articles
Data availability 
N/A
16%
External funding 
No
32%
Competing interests 
N/A
11%
Metric
This journal
Other journals
Articles accepted 
5%
33%
Days to publication 
0
145

Indexed in

Editor & editorial board
profiles
Academic society 
Canadian Anthropology Society
Publisher 
University of Victoria

PFL

1 2 3 4 5
Not useful Very useful

Downloads

Published

2022-06-08

How to Cite

Hunn, E. S. (2022). Mixtepec Zapotec Ethnobiological Classification: A Preliminary Sketch and Theoretical Commentary. Anthropologica, 40(1), 35–48. Retrieved from https://cas-sca.journals.uvic.ca/index.php/anthropologica/article/view/2070

Issue

Section

Thematic Section: