THE TREE OF LIFE - UNIVERSAL AND CULTURAL FEATURES OF FOLKBIOLOGICAL TAXONOMIES AND INDUCTIONS

Two parallel studies were performed with members of very different cul tures-industrialized American and traditional Itzaj-Mayan-to investiga te potential universal and cultural features of folkbiological taxonom ies and inductions. Specifically, we examined how individuals organize natural categories into taxonomies, and whether they readily use thes e taxonomies to make inductions about those categories. The results of the first study indicate that there is a cultural consensus both; amo ng Americans and the Itzaj in their taxonomies of local mammal species , and that these taxonomies resemble and depart from a corresponding s cientific taxonomy in similar ways.