---
title: "Ethnoscience"
chunk: 4/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnoscience"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:24:19.989526+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== System of classification – among cultures ===
Ethnoscience deals with how a given culture classifies certain principles in addition to how it is express through their language. By understanding a given culture through how they view the world, anthropologists attempt to eliminate any bias through translation as well as categorized their principles in their own ways. "The new methods, which focus on the discovery and description of folk systems, have come to be known as Ethnoscience. Ethnoscience analysis has thus far concentrated on systems of classification within such cultural and linguistic domains as colors, plants, and medicines" (Perchonock and Werner, 1969). An ethnoscientific approach can be used to better understand a given culture and their knowledge of their culture. Using an ethnographic approach can help anthropologists understand how that given culture views and categorizes their own foods, animal kingdom, medicines, as well as plants.

=== Contemporary research ===
Ethnoscience can be effectively summed up as a classification system for a particular culture in the same way that a botanist would use a taxonomic system for the classification of plant species. Everything from class levels, food consumption, clothing, and material culture objects would be subjected to a taxonomic classification system. In essence, ethnoscience is a way of classifying cultural systems in a structured order to better understand the culture.
The roots of ethnoscience can be traced back to influential anthropologists such as Franz Boas, Bronislaw Malinowski, and Benjamin Whorf who attempted to understand other cultures from an insider's perspective. Ward Goodenough is accredited for bringing ethnoscience to the stage when he define cultural systems of knowledge by stating:

"A societies culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members. Culture is not a material phenomenon; it does not consist of things, behavior, or emotions. It is rather an organization of these things. It is the form of things that people have in mind, their models for perceiving, relating, and otherwise interpreting them."

(Goodenough 1957:167)
In order to properly put ethnoscience in context we must first understand the definition of ethnoscience. it is defined as "an attempt at cultural description from a totally emic perspective (a perspective in ethnography that uses the concepts and categories that are relevant and meaningful to the culture that is insider analysis) standpoint, this eliminating all of the ethnographer's own categories" (Morey and Luthans 27). Ethnoscience is also a way of learning and understanding how an individual or group perceive their environment and how they fit in with their environment as reflected in their own words and actions.
Ethnoscience has many techniques when applied to an emic perspective. Ethnosemantics, ethnographic semantics, ethnographic ethnoscience, formal analysis, and componential analysis are the terms that apply to the practice of ethnoscience. Ethnosemantics looks at the meaning of words in order to place them in context of the culture being studied. It allows for taxonomy of a certain part of the culture being looked at so that there is a clear breakdown which in turn leads to a deeper understanding of the subject at hand. Ethnographic semantics are very similar to cognitive anthropology in that its primary focus is the intellectual and rational perspectives of the culture being studied. Ethnographic semantics specifically looks at how language is used throughout the culture. Lastly, ethnographic ethnoscience is related to ethnosemantics such that, it uses a taxonomic system to understand how cultural knowledge is accessible through language. Ethnographic ethnoscience uses similar classification systems for cultural domains like ethnobotany and ethnoanatomy. Again, ethnoscience is a way of understanding a how a culture sees itself through its own language. Understanding the cultural language allows the ethnographer to have a deeper and more intimate understanding of the culture.

== See also ==
ethno-
astronomy
biology
botany
chemistry
ecology
mathematics
medicine
pharmacy
zoology
musicology
'traditional'
knowledge
medicine

== References ==
Atran, Scott (1991). "Social Science Information / Sur Les Sciences Sociales". Ethnoscience Today. 30 (4): 595–662. doi:10.1177/053901891030004001. S2CID 144923237.
Augé, Marc. 1999.  The war of dreams: exercises in ethno-fiction, London: Pluto Press, 1999
Cajete, Gregory. 2000. "Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence."Santa Fe, N.M.: Clear Light Publishers.
Harris, Marvin. 1968. The Rise of Anthropological Theory: A history of Theories of Culture. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.
Horton, Robin (1967), "African Traditional Thought and Western Science", Africa, 37: 50–71, 155–187, doi:10.2307/1157195, JSTOR 1157195, S2CID 145507695
Ingold, Tim. 2000. The Perception of The Environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. London, UK: Routledge.
Malinowski, BC. 1922. Argonauts of the western pacific. London, UK: Routledge.
Mead, Margaret (1973). "Changing Styles of Anthropological Work". Annual Review of Anthropology. 2: 1–16. doi:10.1146/annurev.an.02.100173.000245.
Meehan, Peter M. 1980. Science, ethnoscience, and agricultural knowledge utilization. In: Warren DM, Brokensha D, Werner O (Eds). Indigenous knowledge systems and development. Lanham, MD, USA: University Press of America. p 383–91.
Newton, DP; Newton, LD (1998). "Enculturation and understanding: Some differences between sixth formers' and graduates' conceptions of understanding in history and science". Teaching in Higher Education. 3 (3): 339–64. doi:10.1080/1356215980030305.
Perchonock, Norma; Werner, Oswald (1969). "Navaho Systems of Classifications: Some Implications for Ethnoscience". Ethnology. 8 (3): 229–242. doi:10.2307/3772753. JSTOR 3772753.
Sturtevant, William C (1964). "Studies in Ethnoscience". American Anthropologist. 66 (3): 99–131. doi:10.1525/aa.1964.66.3.02a00850.
Urry, James (1972). "Notes and Queries on Anthropology". Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 1972: 45–57. doi:10.2307/3031732. JSTOR 3031732.
Videbeck, R. and J. Pia. 1966. Plans for Coping: An Approach to Ethnoscience. Syracuse University. Anthropological Linguistics, Vol. 8, No. 8. Ethnoscience: A Symposium Presented at the 1966 Meeting of the Central States Anthropological Society (Nov., 1966), pp. 71–77.
Werner, Oswald (1972). "Ethnoscience 1972". Annual Review of Anthropology. 1: 271–308. doi:10.1146/annurev.an.01.100172.001415.