A. Lopez et al., THE TREE OF LIFE - UNIVERSAL AND CULTURAL FEATURES OF FOLKBIOLOGICAL TAXONOMIES AND INDUCTIONS, Cognitive psychology, 32(3), 1997, pp. 251-295
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.