HAuiu h x (?Tox] ETHNOZOOLOGY OF THE TEWA INDIANS 9 



generations with modern scientific ideas of species, their interrela 

 tions, and the development of various groups of species from com 

 mon sources. In discussing such matters, one s words, whether 

 one speaks in his own language or attempts to apply a primitive 

 language, represent definite mental concepts, but may convey to 

 primitive people, who have not such concepts, ideas quite foreign 

 to those intended. So also we are in constant danger of uncon 

 sciously injecting our own concepts into the words used by our 

 informants in expressing their ideas. It is exceedingly difficult to 

 question them about abstract ideas without framing the queries so as 

 to suggest one s own views and thus color the replies. 



Care must be taken to avoid mistaking descriptive or comparative 

 terms for names. When an Indian informant is shown a foreign 

 species with which he is not familiar, he may, as is the case with a 

 representative of any other race, designate it by what appears to be 

 a name but which on analysis proves to be a descriptive or com 

 parative word or phrase and not a native name for the species, as 

 when a small white marine shell is exhibited and a word is applied 

 which means that it looks like bone. 



That the Indians have been close observers of animals is shown 

 by the fact that they have developed names for almost all the parts of 

 birds and mammals, as claws, whiskers, foot-pads, etc. 



If work in ethnozoology is to be maintained on a scientific 

 basis and an accurate estimate made of the Indian s knowledge of 

 Nature, definite determinations of the species of plants and animals 

 discussed must be made. Much of the work hitherto done in obtain 

 ing the names of plants and animals has been worthless, because no 

 attempt was made to discover and record with certainty the kind 

 of plants and animals to which the names are applied. Much 

 more important than mere nomenclature is the idea of which nomen 

 clature is but an attempted expression. The best way certainly is 

 to get the information in the field, so far as possible by showing the 

 Indian informants the animal in its natural environment. Specimens 

 thus identified and discussed should then be scientifically identified 

 and preserved for future reference. 



CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS 



There is no word meaning animal . } Animay or animal (&amp;lt;Span. 

 animal) is sometimes heard. 



No word meaning mammal is in use. Bats are considered birds. 



Towa, human being , distinguishes man from other animals, and i 

 sometimes Tewa or again ah 1 Indians from other kinds of men. 



H% par) now applies to large domestic animals, as horses, cattle, / 

 swine. What it referred to in pre-European times is uncertain. 



