Hierarchy and utility in a folk biological taxonomic system: patterns in classification of arthropods by the Kayapó Indians of Brazil

Papers by Hayes (1982) and Hunn (1982) have attempted to provide a utilitarian/ adaptionist framework for folk biological classification studies. Hunn (1982: 830) outlines a fundamental contradiction between a utilitarian ‘natural core model’ and the traditional, formal hierarchy model of Berlin (1973, 1976) and Berlin et al. (1966, 1973). Hunn correctly points out that ethnobiologists have woefully ignored the practical, utilitarian aspects of folk classification: he is, however, unnecessarily polemic in his critique of hierarchical models.