Maybe I'm late in considering this idea, and it has already been proposed and refuted (a major fear of mine).... but wouldn't the new genetic evidence (genetic map of human migrations) and linguistic evidence (a more lucid picture of language change over time) provide the possibility for a new interpretation of the cultural taxonomies used in ethnoscience?
We can follow the migrations of people pretty closely using DNA, and it's helped a lot in illumining the lingual changes (and subsequent diffusion) following migrations of people. Is it radical to consider reviving cultural taxonomy in light of new studies in genetics and language? A loss of cachet does not always signify a worthless theory. Is ethnoscience firmly old hat and without tangible merit?
Monday, October 5, 2009
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