|
Ethnoherpetology
Ethnoherpetology is the study of the past and present interrelationships between human cultures and reptiles and amphibians. It is a sub-field of ethnozoology, which in turn is a sub-field of ethnobiology. Snakes and amphibians have been considered chthonic creatures in many cultures. Richly represented in mythology, culture, art, and literature, they often evoke revulsion, fear, suspicion and awe, sometimes even hysteria. Frogs and toads were believed to announce the rains with their choruses. See also * Colorado River toad * Frogs in culture * Herpetology * Legendary salamander in popular culture * Nāga * Serpent (symbolism) Bibliography * Bulmer, Ralph N.H. and Michael Tyler. 1968. Karam classification of frogs. Journal of the Polynesian Society 77(4): 621–639. * Indraneil Das – The Serpent's Tongue: A contribution to the ethnoherpetology of India and adjacent countries (Frankfurt am Main: Edition Chimaira, 1998) * Walsh, M.T. – Snakes and Other Reptiles in Mtanga: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reptiles In Culture
Human uses of reptiles have for centuries included both symbolic and practical interactions. Symbolic uses of reptiles include accounts in mythology, religion, and folklore as well as pictorial symbols such as medicine's serpent-entwined caduceus. Myths of creatures with snake-like or reptilian attributes are found around the world, from Chinese and European dragons to the Woolunga of Australia. Classical myths told of the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra, the Gorgon sisters including the snake-haired Medusa, and the snake-legged Titans. Crocodiles appear in the religions of Ancient Egypt, in Hinduism, and in Aztec and other Latin American cultures. Practical uses of reptiles include the manufacture of snake antivenom and the farming of crocodiles, principally for leather but also for meat. Reptiles still pose a threat to human populations, as snakes kill some tens of thousands each year, while crocodiles attack and kill hundreds of people per year in Southeast Asia and Africa. Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frogs In Culture
Frogs play a variety of roles in culture, appearing in folklore and fairy tales such as the Brothers Grimm story of ''The Frog Prince''. In ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, frogs symbolized fertility, while in classical antiquity, the Greeks and Romans associated frogs with fertility, harmony, and licentiousness. Frogs are the subjects of fables attributed to Aesop, of proverbs in various cultures, and of art. Frog characters such as Kermit the Frog and Pepe the Frog feature in popular culture. They are eaten in some parts of the world including France. In Australia, a fondant dessert is known as frog cake. History Folklorist Andrew Lang listed myths about a frog or toad that swallows or blocks the flow of waters occurring in many world mythologies. On the other hand, researcher Anna Engelking drew attention to the fact that studies on Indo-European mythology and its language see "a link between frogs and the underworld, and – by extension – sickness and death". Ancient ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serpent (symbolism)
The serpent, or snake, is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. The word is derived from Latin ''serpens'', a crawling animal or snake. Snakes have been associated with some of the oldest rituals known to mankind and represent dual expression of good and evil. In some cultures, snakes were fertility symbols. For example, the Hopi people of North America performed an annual snake dance to celebrate the union of Snake Youth (a Sky spirit) and Snake Girl (an Underworld spirit) and to renew the fertility of Nature. During the dance, live snakes were handled, and at the end of the dance the snakes were released into the fields to guarantee good crops. "The snake dance is a prayer to the spirits of the clouds, the thunder and the lightning, that the rain may fall on the growing crops." To the Hopi, snakes symbolized the umbilical cord, joining all humans to Mother Earth. The Great Goddess often had snakes as her familiars—sometimes twining around her sacred staff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethnozoology
Ethnozoology is the study of the past and present interrelationships between human cultures and the animals in their environment. It includes classification and naming of zoological forms, cultural knowledge and use of wild and domestic animals. It is one of the main subdisciplines of ethnobiology and shares many methodologies and theoretical frameworks with ethnobotany. Ethnozoology is the study of human and animal interaction. Ethnobiology includes ethnobotany, which concerns the study of human-plant relationships and ethnozoology. Ethnozoology focuses explicitly on human-animal relationships and knowledge humans have acquired concerning the Earth's fauna. Ethnozoological study concerns the significance of this knowledge to our understanding of the roles played by animals in human society. Faunal resources play a variety of roles in human life throughout history, and their importance to human beings is not only utilitarian but cultural, religious, artistic, and philosophical. E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethnobiology
] Ethnobiology is the scientific study of the way living things are treated or used by different human cultures. It studies the dynamic relationships between people, biota, and environments, from the distant past to the immediate present.culture to the plant world"'' * in Great Britain, Britain (mid 1960s) with the publication of Claude Lévi-Strauss' book ''The Savage Mind'' legitimating "folk biological classification" as a worthy cross-cultural research endeavour * in France (mid 1970s) with André-Georges Haudricourt's linguistic studies of botanical nomenclature and R. Porteres' and others work in economic biology. Present (1980s–2000s) By the turn of the 21st century ethnobiological practices, research, and findings have had a significant impact and influence across a number of fields of biological inquiry including ecology, conservation biology, development studies, and political ecology. The Society of Ethnobiology advises on its web page: Ethnobiology is a rapidly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chthonic
The word chthonic (), or chthonian, is derived from the Ancient Greek word ''χθών, "khthon"'', meaning earth or soil. It translates more directly from χθόνιος or "in, under, or beneath the earth" which can be differentiated from Γῆ, or "ge", which speaks to the living surface of land on the earth. In Greek, chthonic is a descriptive word for things relating to the underworld and can be used in the context of chthonic gods, chthonic rituals, chthonic cults, and more. This is as compared to the more commonly referenced Olympic gods and their associated rites and cults. Olympic gods are understood to reference that which exists above the earth, particularly in the sky. Gods that are related to agriculture are also considered to have chthonic associations as planting and growing takes place in part under the earth. Chthonic deities Chthonic and ouranic, or olympic, are not completely opposite descriptors. They do not cleanly differentiate types of gods and worship int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colorado River Toad
The Colorado River toad (''Incilius alvarius''), formerly known as the Sonoran Desert toad, is found in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. It exudes toxins from glands within its skin that have psychoactive properties. Description The Colorado River toad can grow to about long and is the largest toad in the United States apart from the non-native cane toad (''Rhinella marina''). It has a smooth, leathery skin and is olive green or mottled brown in color. Just behind the large golden eye with horizontal pupil is a bulging kidney-shaped parotoid gland. Below this is a large circular pale green area which is the tympanum or ear drum. By the corner of the mouth there is a white wart and there are white glands on the legs. All these glands produce toxic secretions. Its call is described as, "a weak, low-pitched toot, lasting less than a second." Dogs that have attacked toads have suffered paralysis or even death. Raccoons have learned to pull a toad away from a pon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herpetology
Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and reptiles (including snakes, lizards, amphisbaenids, turtles, terrapins, tortoises, crocodilians, and the tuataras). Birds, which are cladistically included within Reptilia, are traditionally excluded here; the scientific study of birds is the subject of ornithology. Thus, the definition of herpetology can be more precisely stated as the study of ectothermic (cold-blooded) tetrapods. Under this definition "herps" (or sometimes "herptiles" or "herpetofauna") exclude fish, but it is not uncommon for herpetological and ichthyological scientific societies to collaborate. Examples include publishing joint journals and holding conferences in order to foster the exchange of ideas between the fields, as the American Society of Ichthyologists and He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legendary Salamander In Popular Culture
The salamander is an amphibian of the order Urodela which, as with many real creatures, often has been ascribed fantastic and sometimes occult qualities by pre-modern authors (as in the allegorical descriptions of animals in medieval bestiaries) not possessed by the real organism. The legendary salamander is often depicted as a typical salamander in shape with a lizard-like form, but is usually ascribed an affinity with fire, sometimes specifically elemental fire. Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance lore This legendary creature embodies the fantastic qualities that ancient and medieval commentators ascribed to the natural salamander. Many of these qualities are rooted in verifiable traits of the natural creature but often exaggerated. A large body of legend, mythology, and symbolism has developed around this creature over the centuries. Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' of 1758 established the scientific description of the salamander and noted the chief char ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nāga
The Nagas (IAST: ''nāga''; Devanāgarī: नाग) are a divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human or part-human form, or are so depicted in art. A female naga is called a Nagi, or a Nagini. According to legend, they are the children of the sage Kashyapa and Kadru. Rituals devoted to these supernatural beings have been taking place throughout South Asia for at least 2,000 years. They are principally depicted in three forms: as entirely human with snakes on the heads and necks, as common serpents, or as half-human, half-snake beings in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. ''Nagaraja'' is the title given to the king of the nagas. Narratives of these beings hold cultural significance in the mythological traditions of many South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures, and within Hinduism and Buddhism, they are the ancestral origins of the Nagavanshi Kshatriyas. Etymology In Sanskrit, a () ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalam Language
Kalam is a Kalam language of Papua New Guinea. It is closely related to Kobon, and shares many of the features of that language. Kalam is spoken in Middle Ramu District of Madang Province and in Mount Hagen District of Western Highlands Province. Thanks to decades of studies by anthropologists such as Ralph Bulmer and others, Kalam is one of the best-studied Trans-New Guinea languages to date. Dialects There are two distinct dialects of Kalam that are highly distinguishable from each other. *Etp, with 20,000 speakers, is centered in the Upper Kaironk and Upper Simbai Valleys. *Ti, with 5,000 speakers is centered in the Asai Valley. It includes the Tai variety. Kobon is closely related. Kalam has an elaborate pandanus avoidance register used during karuka harvest that has been extensively documented. The Kalam pandanus language, called () or (), is also used when eating or cooking cassowary. Phonology Consonants Vowels Evolution Below are some Kalam reflexes of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gombe Stream National Park
Gombe Stream National Park is a national park in Kigoma District of Kigoma Region in Tanzania, north of Kigoma, the capital of Kigoma Region.Tanzania National Parks“Gombe Stream National Park”, 2008. Established in 1968, it is one of the smallest national parks in Tanzania, with only of protected land along the hills of the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika.The Jane Goodall Institute“Gombe Stream Research Centre” 2008. The terrain is distinguished by steep valleys, and the vegetation ranges from grassland to woodland to tropical rainforest.PBS: Nature“Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees” 1996. Accessible only by boat, the park is most famous as the location where Jane Goodall pioneered her behavioural research on the common chimpanzee populations. The Kasakela chimpanzee community, featured in several books and documentaries, lives in Gombe National Park. Besides chimpanzees, primates inhabiting Gombe Stream National Park include beachcomber olive baboons, red colobus, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Legendary Salamander In Popular Culture")
