Ethnology is a branch of anthropology that is concerned with the analysis and comparison of various characteristics of living things- especially human- based on the relationship between them considering aspects such as social and cultural practices. Anthropologists have further coined the word ethnotaxonomy, which refers the study of the taxonomic systems within the context of ethnic groups .
Further down, ethnozoology is another term applied by the anthropologists in reference to the study of both the previous and prevailing interrelations between the animals and human cultures in their natural environment. This discipline is concerned with the naming and grouping of all the species in various forms of zoology, domestic and wild animals and basing on the information about their cultures .
Ethnozoology is therefore closely related to ethnobotany, except that it deals with animals and human relations, whereas the latter deals with the naming and classification plant species and groups and their interrelationship with the human. It is an interesting part of anthropology that focuses on the relations and cultural dynamics of both the animals and human.
This knowledge and context of ethnozoology play a vital role in the way animals are treated and in various societies depending on the level of understanding of the importance of the part that is played by the different animals in the community of human life. It is widely known that human value animals differently depending on the societies and the beliefs that are held about them. Such attachment, or lack thereof, is solely borne out of the historical interrelations that have existed between animals and human beings over time .
In various communities, therefore, animals are valued differently and in numerous aspects such as philosophical, cultural, religious and artistic amongst others. The place of animals in a human’s society is, therefore, varied and dependent on the said interaction. This knowledge of the interrelation and the context of it forms the basis of ethnozoology
Work Cited
Alves, Romulo Romeu Nobrega and Wedson Medeiros Silva Sauto. Ethnozoology: A Brief Introduction. Ethnobiology and Conservation (2015). Print
