Unique Animal Classification Systems 🌱🐶

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if our understanding of the animal kingdom was completely different? In Landil, a language used on a small island off the coast of Australia, they have a unique taxonomy system that differs greatly from ours. In Landil, organisms are divided only into two categories: land-organisms and sea-organisms. That's right, there's no distinction between plants and animals! So, a dog and an acorn are in the same category in landil, while a dog and an fish would be considered different types of organisms. This short video explores the intriguing concept of a culture with a vastly different understanding of the animal kingdom and how it could change our perspective.

[Tryth]

I like this edible/lethal/dgaf categorization

EDIT: If you're wondering how they categorize lethal but technically edible species, lethal wins. He mentioned poisonous mushrooms as an example.

[PraetorianCarrion]

similarly, I just call most animals goblins or babies depending on how vicious they're being

[Jvccampbell]

We used to categorize butterflies and moths with birds and bats. If it flies it’s the same thing. Seems like human nature

[cheetahman]

Color is also a thing that is based on culture. There are cultures that see lime green and dark green as completely separate colors, like pink and red for us

[alihaggis]

From my time in East Africa we noticed that the locals tend to classify all animals into 4 categories of "doodoo".
1. Dangerous and you can't eat it.
2. Dangerous and you can eat it.
3. Not dangerous but you can't eat it.
4. Not dangerous and you can eat it.
This covered all they needed or wanted to know.

[thakgatsomashego]

I'm from South Africa, a neighbor of Botswana and speak seTshwana language of Botswana.
I am very curious in where you cited these three Botswana categories. Could you please share so I can verify and learn.

[westeralex]

This reminds me how in Japanese you have a clear distinction between fish, meat, fruit, and vegetables.

[everydaytwiceonsundays]

You might like mi'gmaq language (indigenous language of eastern NA), it separates nouns into animate/inanimate, in a way similar to the way French/Spanish/Italian separate them into masculine/feminine. Animate things are (from memory) people and animals, containers and things that go on a table (plates, cutlery etc.), and inanimate is everything else. Also, fun fact, animate words have two plurals: one for exactly two, and one for three or more (inanimate things have only one plural, it works similarly to English).
Also, mi'gmaq verbs are double-inflected, they accord to both subject and object. Any grammar nerd out there would probably like mi'gmaq.

[lizzykayOT]

In the middle ages, they also designated the Beaver as a fish, so most cultures are weird until we get to the science stage. I also like the way humans define colours depending on the culture. Like it seems normal that sky and grass are different, but it's not always like that.

[baroquerookbr]

For those wondering. The x in the names is either a sucking in sound or tongue clicking sound. It is not meant to be pronounced as it's a phonetic. Not necessarily a silent x but a full stop. Least that's how it goes for most languages.

[user]

Remember that mushrooms aren't plants, they are fungi.

[piratekit]

The botswana tribe's categorization sounds like the kind of details you care about when your life is literally in the balance every day. Very very practical.

[woansien]

“alright bro what’s for dinner?”
“ok, so we got some fresh eat things, and some fresh sea organism, pick one.”

[The_Farlander]

What's rad as hell about this is this gives you a pretty straightforward track to follow for how far back these terms must have originated. Even in the face of the western drive to "assimilate" (subjugate) other cultures, these languages have lasted all the way into the modern day.

[matthewpurkis]

We still have edibility based classification in english, eg vegetable can be any edible part of a plant or fungus that isn’t otherwise considered a fruit even when it IS a fruit like cucumbers tomatoes aubergines

[lainwired]

Crazy how they landed on "men" for it. Too! I've always been interested in words that seem to be the same even across large ancient borders. Stuff like mother/father is very similar in most langs also

[seaveggies]

In Catawba (native American language), we have words for people and then animals/plants respectively, but nothing specifically putting animals/plants lower than us or without a conscious as modern English tends to.

[Aurorya]

My french self : but you can eat snails though ? 🤔🐌

[purposefilledprincess]

Love and support all the way from Botswana! 🇧🇼

[CynicalEmpath]

All I took away from this "Yorkie. Yorkie. Yorkie... "