Ethnomethodology as an emic guide to cultural systems: the case of the insects and the Kayapó Indians of Amazonia

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to briefly summarize the taxonomic features of the folk entomological classification system of the Kayapó Indians of Central Brazil. The folk system shows a correlation with scientific taxonomies, especially at levels of Class, Order and Family. Several morphological continua os "sequences" are evident and within these are found additional sub-groupings called "complexes". Of particular interest is the sequence labeled "ñy", which is analogous to the scientific Orders of Isoptera and Hymenoptera. Patterns for these groupings reflect important social and cultural values and are indicative of the significance of social insects (bees, ants, wasps and termites) in the Kayapó belief system. It is suggested that taxonomic systems are guides to culturally significant domains and point to underlying social and cultural patterns. These patterns are reified by mythology and oral tradition, being encoded as recurring symbolic forms with natural prototypes. Thus an ethnomethodology to determine folk classification systems offers an emic approach to the investigation of cultures and reveals the inter-relationships between cognitive systems, mythology, ceremony, and natural symbols.