2.2.1 Ethnobiological Literature
There is a large and sprawling literature on ethnobiology in its various forms, selected areas of which have had direct influence upon this work. In terms of theory, Hal Conklin's classic Ph.D. dissertation based upon his research on the ethnobotany of the Hanunoo of the Phillipines remains the baseline text. This work was crucial to the formation of modern academic ethnobiology, being the first to address in an anthropological framework the relationship between perception and classification of, and interaction with the natural world [Conklin 1954]. Hyndman's [1984] research on New Guinea hunters addressed human-animal interactions within a similar ethnoclassificatory framework. The most recent summary text on ethnoclassification is Brent Berlin's theoretical treatise [Berlin 1992]. This is a fairly comprehensive and essential review of the literature, which is weakened by Berlin's obsessive adherence to a theoretical framework which is clearly not supported by the data presented. His analysis can at best be described as naive and misguided, at worst ludicrous. A much more eclectic and realistic theoretical framework is provided by Roy Ellen's analysis of his research on ethnozoological classification amongst the Nuaulu of south Seram. This emphasises the flexibility, variability and non-uniformity of folk classificatory systems within the context of dynamic systems of social and ecological relations [Ellen 1993], and better accommodates much of the data erroneously presented by Berlin as supporting his own theory.
Ellen's work has also provided important methodological information. Ellen emphasises the importance of not allowing one's research methods to constrain the results which might be obtained in studies of ethnoclassification [Ellen 1986: 87-89]. Berlin's methods are a classic example of how this occurs [eg. Berlin et al 1974: 56-8], and the quality of his above-mentioned analysis testimony to Ellen's criticism of such an approach. Also of great use is Gary Martin's book dedicated exclusively to ethnobiological methodology [Martin 1995], the only one of its kind, which is appropr.htmliately broad in scope and down-to-earth, if at times a little idealistic. Methods of investigating perceptions of ecological zonation are derived from research into classifications of soil types [Johnson 1974]. The only study of which I am aware which deals with indigenous perceptions of the ecology of particular animal species is a piece of ethnoprimatological research. Simple questions on the behavioural ecology of local primate species were put to a single Colombian Indian collaborator and compared with the published literature; the two were found to be in almost total agreement [Townsend 1995].