Brent Berlin
Overton Brent Berlin (born 1936)[1] is an American anthropologist, most noted for his work with linguist Paul Kay on color, and his ethnobiological research among the Maya of Chiapas, Mexico.
He received his
His work alongside
He led the
Education
Berlin received a BA from the University of Oklahoma in 1959, and an MA from Stanford University in 1960.
Works in ethnobiology
Berlin is well known in the field of ethnobiology, or the study of how people name, use, and organize the names and the knowledge about the plants and animals around them. He also further focused on Folk biology, a sub field of ethnobiology, which refers to the biological classification and reasoning particular to a cultural group. Understanding societies’ interactions with their environment is vital to understanding the culture of the people. Berlin’s contribution to the evolution of ethnobiology as a field has been invaluable to many anthropologists. Considering "a series of landmark publications concerning ethnobiological classification, Berlin has remained a prime architect of the descriptive and analytic frameworks now widely regarded as standard and major theory."(1994)[5]
Covert Categories and Folk Taxonomies (1968)
In 1968, Berlin, Breedlove and Raven studied the botanical ethnography of the Tzeltal Maya people of Chiapas, Mexico. They published an article titled Covert Categories and Folk Taxonomy.[6]
They found a way to determine, with a high degree of reliability, the major outlines of the named taxonomic structure of the plant world for Tzeltal speakers. Tzeltal is one of the Mayan languages spoken in Mexico, in which most linguists distinguish six different regional dialects. In this study, they found many cultural and meaningful categories related by inclusion that are not conventionally labeled. In their language, the different plants in each category all have a common word structure that puts them apart from all of the other plants. They found that you cannot trace the words back to a single source where all plant names are included. In most languages, they have a "unique beginner" that you can trace the names back to. What Berlin and his colleagues found is that plants and animals are thought of as two separate unnamed classes. In plant taxonomy, the highest level is not a "unique beginner" but is instead represented by four major lexemes or units. These four levels are trees, vines, grasses, and herbs. There are more minor classes that include cacti, agaves, bamboos, etc. There are also very few midlevel plant categories. All of the Tzeltal specific taxa (those that which include no other members) fall into the different major and minor sublevels in their taxonomy. But, it is odd to note that the midlevel category hihte, or "oak", contains the plants sikyok and cikinib which neither share the same linguistic structure with their "parent plant."
To test the hypothesis they first went through the community, observed, and recorded information from their informants comments of the plants in their natural habitats. When they went out into the field to collect data, they noticed that some of 10,000 specimens that were located in the same named contrast set were closely related than others. They take into account the uses of the certain plants including food, herbs, firewood and so on.
A second method that was used helped with searching for possible subgroupings within contrast sets of large numbers was to determine the extent to which informants subdivided lists of plant names. To do this, they wrote the names of different names of plants and animals on slips of papers and then gave them to their informants. After doing this, the informants then put the slips of papers into groups that were most like each other. The results showed that they had no trouble placing them in the different categories of "plants" and "animals." This also showed that though they did not have a word for it they did know of the existence of "plants." After this, they broke down the taxonomy even further by giving them different "plant" names and asking them the same question, as before they had no problem labeling each plant into the different groups or categories.
After they established that they understood the existence of subgroupings, they used three different procedures to find out how they define the features of certain plants. The first procedure was called the triads test in which the informants chose which item out of a group of three was the most different. The results indicated how they group things together based upon similarity.
The second procedure involved constructing folk keys. The keys are used to help distinguish the different plants from the other based upon the traits. They then used these to get a better understanding of why certain plants were put in certain places in their taxonomy. First they would give the informants the names of plants that they had earlier grouped together (when the researchers gave them the slips of papers with names on them), then they were asked to create a key that would help distinguish each plant from each other. In doing this, the informants showed how they make their divisions between plants and decide which group to put them in.
Finally, they conducted a study consisting of paired comparisons of all the items in a particular set of plant names. The informants were asked to compare all the logical pairs in different sets and make logical comparisons and differences amongst them. Characteristics such as stem growth, size and shape of the stem and leaves, and fruit size and shape were all utilized when making the comparisons. This showed Berlin, Breedlove, and Raven what the "definitions" were for a set of terms and they were then able to bring together the like terms that were the most similar according to the informant in question. This study showed what the Tzeltal people deem as the most important features to them when they decide to on certain plants to take care of and plant for their very immediate survival.
This results from this study shows that things that do not have names for the Tzeltal speakers still exist in their eyes. The hierarchies generated by their studies are not arbitrarily spaced, which therefore clearly implies a taxonomic structure. The plants still have a part in their lives and they still identify with them even though they may not have a name. The process of having a given a name to certain life forms in their ecology shows just how much these people are attached to their surroundings. It also shows what to them is considered a life form and what is not. The study proves that we should not take shallow taxonomic hierarchies for granted and should have further studies concerning them to show that the different languages go deeper than we actually let on to them. The study helps outline three great studies that others can use to set up their own studies. It can help researchers understand why sometimes it is hard to identify where the midlevel on a taxonomy hierarchy is or even if it exists at all in a certain community.
General Principles of Classification and Nomenclature in Folk Biology (1973)
One of the first works Berlin published in relation to the budding field of ethnobiology was also one of his more influential: General Principles of Classification and Nomenclature in Folk Biology (1973)
In this journal article, Berlin and team intended to illustrate three hypotheses they felt were properly supported by the data they had acquired during the research they completed. First, it is possible to isolate organisms into linguistically recognized groups called taxa, or classes. Second, these taxa can be further broken down into no more than five smaller classes called taxonomic ethnobiological categories. These smaller categories are defined in terms of certain criteria, such as having certain linguistic or taxonomic feature that are recognizable. They continued to describe how these organisms, flora or fauna, belonging to each of these categories can be arranged into a complex taxonomic hierarchy. The five ethnobiological categories are as follows: unique beginner, life form, generic, specific, and varietal. Most, if not all organisms can be placed
In a following article published in the American Ethnologist (1976),[8] Berlin attempted to address some criticisms he had encountered regarding the ethnobiological concept of category, hereafter also referred to as rank, by applying some of his previous principles to new information on biological classification of the Aguaruna. Some claim the boundaries to determine ranks are arbitrary or that there is no validity to the rank concept. The conclusion of the report stated, "[…] the vast majority of conceptually recognized plant classes in Aguaruna are easily accommodated into one of the proposed ranks in a natural and straightforward fashion. These data suggest that ranks are neither arbitrary nor a mere typological cataloging device invented for the convenience of the ethnographer. On the contrary, the Aguaruna’s view of the plant world provides additional support for the hypothesis that the concept of rank is fundamental to all systems of folk biological classification" (1976).
Ethnobiological Classification (1992)
One of Berlin’s most well known contributions to ethnobiology is his 1992 book, Ethnobiological Classification: Principles of Categorization of Plants and Animals in Traditional Societies.[9]
In this book, Berlin analyzes the widespread commonalities in classification and naming purposes of the local flora and fauna among traditional, non-literate societies. It helps develop and reaffirm the "universalist" approach to ethnobiology. He explains the "basic principles" that he feels form the groundwork for a comparative ethnobiology. He also talks about the three main levels of classification; generic, specific, and higher-order. He wants to stress the importance of prototypes and the fact that "perceptual motivation" underpins not only genera, but also intermediate and life form categories, although he points out that he understands that the life form categories does not neatly reflect biological taxa. In another part of the book, he explores the patterned variations in ethnobiological knowledge. He brings up an interesting suggestion that ethnobiological nomenclature is not necessarily arbitrary, but often reflects some aspect of the inherent quality of the organism. "Brent Berlin maintains that these patterns can best be explained by the similarity of human beings' largely unconscious appreciation of the natural affinities among groupings of plants and animals: people recognize and name a grouping of organisms quite independently of its actual or potential usefulness or symbolic significance in human society" (2009).[
Medical Ethnobiology of the Highland Maya (1996)
Some of Berlin’s more recent work is focused on medical ethnobiology and modern Mayan populations. In 1996, in collaboration with his wife, Elois Ann Berlin, he published a book entitled Medical Ethnobiology of the Highland Maya of Chiapas, Mexico: The Gastrointestinal Diseases.(1996)[10]
In this work, Berlin and Berlin focus on two specific Maya speaking groups, the Tzeltal and the
In 2008, Brent Berlin and Elois Ann Berlin were recognized by the Society for Economic Botany. They received the Distinguished Economic Botanist Award. "‘The work of Brent Berlin and Elois Ann Berlin over the last four decades has led to major theoretical advances in cognitive and medical Ethnobiology,’ said Rick Stepp, a member of the council of the Society for Economic Botany."(2008)[11] Brent Berlin has generated information and new techniques of analyzing data that has influenced many well established members of the field and up and coming students who strive to be an asset to the social sciences.
Works on color
In the book, Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution (1969),[12] a collaboration between Berlin and Paul Kay, they used around 100 different languages to see how many basic color terms for each language are universal. The data they present states that there are around 11 universal basic color terms for languages in which there are always terms for white and black present in all languages. They depicted a set of stages which state that if there are 3 color terms presented, this is attributed to include red, also. There are several more steps in which other colors are then added until there are languages with 8 or more basic color terms. In one experiment, they used painted chips with several different color hues and told the speakers in their native language to point out the basic color in the focal point and the outer hues they also connect it to. This helped them gauge what difference in hues of colors people from different languages appropriated with each basic color term. Because there are many different names for colors in each society, the data helped note what the basic terms for simple colors were and how many different hues they connected to those basic colors.
Berlin also studied the classifications of color for the Aguaruna people of north-central Peru. In this research, he found out that a majority of these people match up with the stage three color views from the 1969 work, in which the Aguaruna have names for black, white, red, and a color they call grue. In his article, Aguaruna Color Categories (1975),[13] he discusses the findings of how they classify and name colors. When he mentions that they have the color grue, he states that it is a "GRUE [green + blue],…it appears to be blue rather than green"(1975). Although the majority of the people he studied matched up with this third stage of color classification and naming, there were others that often had the names to multiple other colors and were attributed to knowing more Spanish than the others. In their native language, it is possible that they did not have words for all of the colors that are available to use in Spanish. During their research, they soon noticed that there was no specific name for the word "color" in the Aguaruna language. Often, they had an easier time when speaking with the bilingual people that also knew Spanish. This helped them compile an early list of 10 color terms in both Spanish and Aguaruna.
Instead of depending solely on the painted chips like they did in the previous experiment, they "began presenting items of natural or artificial object and asking...’what stain does it have’, a question provided us by a bilingual teacher"(1975). He mentioned later that they were able to find objects of all colors except pink and brown and that this type of color naming procedure helped the participants answer more quickly and was more enjoyable during the study. In addition to this way of color questioning, they also brought some painted cards because they could not find painted chips and used those along with the objects.
During the research, they presented the colored objects and asked which types people associated with certain colors, in no particular order, and wrote the results down. After this questioning, they presented cards with different colors and told the participants to choose a focal point for various colors and point out how many cards they attributed to each color. In their findings they noticed how people that were monolingual in Aguaruna only recognized names for the basic white, black, red, and grue while others that spoke a little or were bilingual in Spanish knew the names of many more colors presented. In his findings on the topic of color terminology among the Aguaruna, he noticed that people with access to different languages outside of the community have picked up various names for colors from a different language and brought them into the community in order for some to have access to multiple color terms they might not have had in their own language.
Bioprospecting and the Maya ICBG controversy
In 1998 Berlin and his wife, Elois A. Berlin, founded an
Soon after being initiated the project became the subject of harsh criticisms by indigenous activists and Mexican intellectuals who questioned how knowledge obtained from individual Maya could be patented by researchers or foreign pharmaceutical companies, how the PROMAYA NGO established by the Berlins and under their control could be considered representative of the many different Maya communities in Chiapas, and how it was possible for the knowledge that had been collective property of the Maya peoples to become suddenly privatized without the prior consent of each of the individual initial holders of the knowledge. The Berlins argued that the establishment of the NGO was the only feasible way of managing benefit sharing with the community and of obtaining
The Maya ICBG case was among the first to draw attention to the problems of distinguishing between bioprospecting and biopiracy, and to the difficulties of securing community participation and prior informed consent for bioprospectors.[17]
Select publications
- Berlin, Brent. 1968. Tzeltal Numeral Classifiers: A Study in Ethnographic Semantics. The Hague: Janua Linguarum.
- Berlin, Brent. 1992. Ethnobiological classification: principles of categorization of plants and animals in traditional societies. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09469-1
- Berlin, Brent. 1995. "Huambisa Sound Symbolism." In Sound symbolism, edited by Leanne Hinton, Johanna Nichols, and John J. Ohala. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press.
- Berlin, Elois Ann, and Brent Berlin. 1996. Medical ethnobiology of the Highland Maya of Chiapas, Mexico: the gastrointestinal diseases. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Recognition
- National Academy of Sciences 1980[4]
- Fyssen Foundation Prize 2000[4]
- Distinguished Economic Botanist Award with Elois Ann Berlin 2008
References
- ^ a b "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved June 16, 2011.
- ^ "UGA Anthropology - Dr. Brent Berlin". Archived from the original on 2010-06-03. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
- ^ "Paul Kay, Brent Berlin, Luisa Maffi, William R. Merrifield, and Richard Cook: World Color Survey". Archived from the original on 2010-04-13. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
- ^ a b c Amit, Vered (2004). Biographical dictionary of social and cultural anthropology. Routledge. pp. 65–67.
- ^ Hays, T. (1994). Book Reviews. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 4(1), 74-75.
- ^ Berlin, B., Breedlove, D., & Raven, P. (1968). Covert Categories and Folk Taxonomies. American Anthropologist, 70(2), 290-299.
- ^ Berlin, B., Breedlove, D., & Raven, P. (1973). General Principles of Classification and Nomenclature in Folk Biology. American Anthropologist 75(1), 214 - 242.
- ^ Berlin, B. (1976). The concept of rank in ethnobiological classification: some evidence from Aguaruna folk botany. American Ethnologist, 3(3), 381-399.
- ^ Berlin, B. (1992). Ethnobiological Classification: Principles of Categorization of Plants and Animals in Traditional Societies. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- ^ Berlin, B., & Berlin, E. (1996). Medical Ethnobiology of the Highland Maya of Chiapas, Mexico: the Gastrointestinal Diseases. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- ^ Williams, P. L. (2008, February 28). Public Affairs, News Bureau. Retrieved March 26, 2010, from University of Georgia: http://www.uga.edu/news/artman/publish/printer_080228_Berlins.shtml
- ^ Berlin, B, & Kay, P. (1969). Basic color terms: their universality and evolution. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press.
- ^ Berlin, B, & Berlin, E.A. (1975). Aguaruna Color Categories. American Ethnologist, 2(1), 61-87
- ^ "UGA Today - Today's top news from the University of Georgia". UGA Today.
- ^ Berlin, Brent; Eloise A Berlin (2007). "Comment 1.1 Private and Public Knowledge in the Debate on Bioprospecting: Implications for Local Communities and prior Informed Consent". In James V. Lavery (ed.). Ethical Issues in International Biomedical Research: A Casebook. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Hayden, Cori (2003). When Nature Goes Public: The Making and Unmaking of Bioprospecting in Mexico. Princeton University Press. pp. 100–105.
- ISBN 978-90-481-3123-5.