Classifying Animals

Is a fox more like a cat or a coyote? The answer depends in part on where you grew up, but not entirely. For thousands of years, people around the world have thought about which creatures "belong together." Some researchers argue that humans are born with certain rules for categorizing animals.

López et al. (1997) looked at how Michigan college students and Itzaj-speaking natives of the Pèten rainforest in Guatemala classified local mammals. Both the Michigan students and the Itzaj grouped animals according to size and degree of ferocity. However, Itzajs had much more detailed classifications for small animals. They sorted the animals into smaller groups by features such as the markings on the animals' coats, whether the animals live in the forest or the village, or, in one case, by the fact that an animal "sleeps in the hollows of trees and snores loudly." Yet, overall, both the Americans and Itzajs made the same distinctions between animals, like large predators and large non-predators, and put animals that live in both places into the same categories. While a few specific instances, like foxes, which the Itzaj call "forest cats,” were different, the Americans and Itzajs share basic concepts about animals in the world.