The tree of life: Universal and cultural features of folkbiological taxonomies and inductions

Two parallel studies were performed with members of very different cultures-industrialized American and traditional Itzaj-Mayan-to investigate potential universal and cultural features of folkbiological taxonomies and inductions. Specifically, we examined how individuals organize natural categories into taxonomies, and whether they readily use these taxonomies to make inductions about those categories. The results of the first study indicate that there is a cultural consensus both; among Americans and the Itzaj in their taxonomies of local mammal species, and that these taxonomies resemble and depart from a corresponding scientific taxonomy in similar ways.