Knowledge for Knowledge's Sake
The Navajo had classified over 700 insects and stored the entire classification in memory.
Ibid.
As I began my PhD research, I was soon seriously impressed by the extent and depth of the knowledge encoded in the narratives of oral cultures the world over. And when I learned more, I was absolutely staggered.
I quickly stumbled across a reference to a study of the Native American Navajo, which found that the Navajo had classified over 700 insects and stored the entire classification in memory. I had no doubt this was exaggeration, but I simply had to get that study to be sure. There was not, as far as I could detect, a single copy in Australia. The academic librarians at La Trobe University did those impressive things that only university librarians know how to do and tracked down a copy in the United States. Three months later, I had an original copy of Navaho Indian Ethnoentomology by Leyland C. Wyman and Flora L. Bailey, published in 1964. I suspect this particular copy had not seen the light of day since—the musty smell was almost overpowering.
But there it was: page after page, 701 insects, each with their Navajo name—genus and species—and a bit of information about each. The Western classifications followed, which were remarkably similar. Wyman and Bailey also pointed out that the Navajo made these classifications because they sought knowledge for knowledge's sake: only a few species were noted because they are 'botherers'—lice, sheep ticks, flies, gnats, mosquitoes or pesky ants—or eaten, the cicada.
