Mapuche ethnozoology: a preliminary study

With the purpose of contributing to ethnoclassification knowledge, we analy zed, from different sources in the literature, 389 mapuche animal names cor responding to 258 vertebrate names and 131 invertebrate names. Based on the resolved etymology of 177 of these names, it becomes clear that the proper ties and relationships used in naming refer to : aspect, such as color, siz e, form, etc., of the animal (55 names); behavior (34 names); habitat and u se (11 names); and the perceptions evoked by the animal (9 names). There ar e 50 onomatopoetic names, mainly imitations of bird calls and shouts. Final ly, 18 of these names correspond to mapuche transformations of words from o ther languages. The majority of mapuche animal names correspond to proper n ames for a biological species, specific ethnozoological categories (272 nam es). Nevertheless, there are some examples of generic ethnocategories (101 names) that group diverse sets of animals, and according to different crite ria, by which it is possible to access the mapuche zoological ethnoclassifi cation system. Basically, the most conspicuous generic ethnocategories corr espond to groupings constructed based on thegeneral aspect of the animal (l ife form class). The semblance of an important species with other taxa also permits groupings by similarity (analogical classes). In the case of incon spicuous taxa (i.e, insects) the grouping of very similar species is common , and corresponds to the natural groups (i.e. genera, family) of systematic biology (taxonomical classes). The absence, however, of distinct specifica tions within these groups indicates that these are seen simply as a unit. F inally, we also recorded groupings based on usage (utilitarian classes) suc h as the case of shellfish or kufull that include plants and animals very d ifferent from one another but that share the property of being collected fo r food. Indeed, these classes of ethnocategories seem to situate themselves in the same hierarchical rank, as all of these classes indistinctly have s ubordinate species names grouped underneath them. Our results therefore do not correspond to the rigid hierarchical ethnoclassification proposed in th e literature for other cultures. We discuss the relevance that animals have in the universe of meanings of mapuche culture, in which these have relati onships with subsistence necessities; with elements of their natural surrou ndings; with creation myths, ancestors and lineage's; and as a representati on of their own social and ritual organization.