Dear all,
Just further to Michael's points re salience (prominent, conspicuous,
most noticeable) and indigenous naming systems. Elsewhere there has been
a lot of work done on the relationship between what species people know,
name and classify and those that are left unnamed - a lot of the work
done on this has identified that many cultures, and there is great
variance within cultures dependent upon such variables as habitat etc,
do have a class of birds that are, to all intents and purposes, unnamed
or unrecognised as being of any economic value.
In my work with Warlpiri bird knowledge in central Australia there are
certainly well-recognised species of economic importance (that are also
classified as 'kuyu'=meat) that are also culturally important - some of
these are large and very salient - Emu, Bustard ad each of these has
several local names and synonyms dependent on context, location etc.
However there are also a number of smaller species where neither
economic or any other value is immediately apparent.
Good examples of these include the Budgerigar (which the Australian
Museum site credits John Gould with naming (in a European sense at
least) as "Betcherrygah Warbling Grass Parakeet Budgerigar
Melopsittacus undulatus Melopsittacus undulatus
Natives of the Liverpool Plains" - see:
http://www.australianmuseum.net.au/exhibitions/gould/naturalist/indigenous2.htm.
Both juvenile (rich in fat & easy to gather) and adult (easy to catch)
Betcherrygahs (and I haven't checked the modern Eora orthography) are
highly valued food sources here. A similar-sized bird, the Zebra Finch,
has no economic value that I can find but has enormous cultural
significance.
One last thing - of the many honeyeaters out here, I've only been able
to locate names for two species - the Singing Honeyeater & the
Yellow-throated Miner ... though their close relative the Chats all have
the same name...
What does all of this mean? - we need more work on these fascinating areas.
Have a good weekend and may the sun and wind be at your back and your
birds before you.
Bob Gosford,
Yuendumu, NT
Michael Todd wrote:
Hi,
I haven't been following this debate very closely I have to admit but
I wouldn't assume that all bird have an indigenous name.
I remember that when I was working on finches (Star and Crimson) at
the Pormpuraaw community on Cape York Peninsula (on the Gulf) I was
interested in the names given to the birds. I know finches were all
given one name Minh something or other. It seemed to denote their lack
of importance to people! On the other hand there were multiple names
for things of economic (food or resource related) importance to denote
different sexes, ages etc.
Now it could be that all the bird species had different names and many
of them have since been forgotten but I think I lean towards their
just having a different way of looking at species to the way
English-speaking European- origin man does. When you are living off
the land it makes sense to have the most descriptive names relating to
species that you need to know intimately such as Magpie Goose, ducks
etc. LBJ's (little brown jobs) like thornbills and gerygones would be
pretty low down the scale of importance to survival I reckon.
Plains-wanderer.... well, I can't imagine it being regarded as
significant. If there is a known indigenous name well and good.
Cheers
Mick
?-- Michael Todd
Wildlifing: Images of Nature: www.wildlifing.com
PhD Candidate- Tasmanian Masked Owl
School of Zoology, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 05, Hobart,
Tasmania 7001
Mobile: o41o 123715
Alan Gillanders wrote:
Laurie,
By, "Perhaps a species that fits in a class of its own, such as the
Plains Wanderer might be a suitable candidate for having an
indigenous name," do mean one that the rest of us use? Very few birds
would not have an indigenous name.
Regards,
Alan
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