This is such a great beginning, Ethnotaxonomy is a perfect starting point for the discussion. On Tue, Mar 1, 2022 at 10:41 PM Don Osborn via Collab < collab@lists.millets2023.space> wrote:
Tangential to our main concerns, but relevant to questions about "millet(s)" as a concept that hops across several sub-families of Gramineae, I've been musing on the notion of ethnotaxonomy.
Ethnotaxonomy - which may be defined as "The naming system for plants and animals used by a particular ethnic group"/1 - is a term from anthropology. As such it may seem a bit unusual to apply to English language usage. However, I'm thinking a good case could be made for ethnotaxonomy as a framework to respond to questions about how to define millets. Ethnotaxonomy might also be useful in approaching issues of translation in the International Year of Millets that I've looked at elswhere./2
We know that "millets" include several cultivated species of Gramineae that have common names including the word "millet." The umbrella term "millets" may also be extended to some or all of several other Gramineae, notably sorghum, fonio, teff, and Job's tears.
So the concept of "millet" seems to have become somewhat generic, and been applied to other species in common names, and then also to additional small grained cultivated Gramineae. All of which seems rather ethnotaxanomical.
Anyway, will leave it there for the moment.
DO
Notes:
1. Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ethnotaxonomy 2. "Translation problems ahead of the International Year of Millets (IYOM2023)?" (blog post) https://donosborn.org/blog/2022/translation-problems-ahead-of-the-internatio...
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