Abstract
This paper describes categories for landscape elements in the language of the Yindjibarndi people, a community of Indigenous Australians. Yindjibarndi terms for topographic features were obtained from dictionaries, and augmented and refined through discussions with local language experts in the Yindjibarndi community. In this paper, the Yindjibarndi terms for convex landforms and for water bodies are compared to English-language terms used to describe the Australian landscape, both in general terms and in the AUSLIG Gazetteer. The investigation found fundamental differences between the two conceptual systems at the basic level, supporting the notion that people from different places and cultures may use different categories for geographic features.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
AIATSIS, A List of Electronic Data Files Held in ASEDA. Aboriginal Studies Electronic Data Archive, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, GPO Box 553, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia (1994)
Anderson, B.: Yindjibarndi dictionary. Photocopy (1986)
Anderson, B., Thieberger, N.: No date. Yindjibarndi dictionary. Document 0297 of the Aboriginal Studies Electronic Data Archive (ASEDA) Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, GPO Box 553, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Atran, S., Medin, D.: Knowledge and action: Cultural models of nature and resource management in Mesoamerica. In: Bazerman, M., et al. (eds.) Environment, ethics, and behavior, New Lexington Press, San Francisco (1997)
AUSLIG, Feature Codes used by the Gazetteer of Australia (2002), http://www.auslig.gov.au/mapping/names/featurecodes.htm (Downloaded, December 2002)
Berlin, B.: Ethnobiological classification. Principles of categorization of plants and animals in traditional societies. Princeton University Press, New Jersey (1992)
Berlin, B., Kay, P.: Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. University of California Press, Berkeley (1969)
Von Brandenstein, C.G.: Narratives from the north-west of Western Australia in the Ngarluma and Jindjiparndi languages. In: AIAS 1970, Canberra (1970)
Von Brandenstein, C.G.: Wordlist from Narratives from the north-west of Western Australia in the Ngarluma and Jindjiparndi languages. In: ASEDA Document #0428, Canberra (1992)
Guarino, N., Giaretta, P.: Ontologies and Knowledge Bases: Towards a Termterminological Clarification. In: Mars, N.J.I. (ed.) Towards Very Large Knowledge Bases, pp. 25–32. IOS Press, Amsterdam (1995)
Ieramugadu Group Inc.: Know the Song, Know the Country: The Ngarda-Ngali story of culture and history in the Roebourne District. Ieramugadu Group Inc., Roebourne (1995)
Wilson, D.: Ontological Pluralism and Information Systems Research. In: Proceedings of PAIS II, the 2 nd Symposium and Workshop on Philosophical Aspects of Information Systems: Methodology, Theory, Practice and Critique, July 27-29, University of the West of England, Bristol (1998)
Lowe, P.: Jilji, Life in the Great Sandy Desert. Magabala Books, Broome (1990)
Malpass, J.E.: Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1999)
Mark, D.M.: A Theoretical Framework for Extending the Set of Geographic Entity Types in the U.S. Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS). In: Proceedings, GIS/LIS 1993, Minneapolis, November 1993, v.2, pp. 475–483 (1993a)
Mark, D.M.: Toward a Theoretical Framework for Geographic Entity Types. In: Campari, I., Frank, A.U. (eds.) COSIT 1993. LNCS, vol. 716, pp. 270–283. Springer, Heidelberg (1993b)
Mark, D.M., Skupin, A., Smith, B.: Features, Objects, and other Things: Ontological Distinctions in the Geographic Domain. In: Montello, D.R. (ed.) COSIT 2001. LNCS, vol. 2205, pp. 489–502. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)
Mark, D.M., Smith, B.: Geographic Categories: An Ontological Investigation. NSF Award BCS 9975557 (1999)
Mark, D.M., Smith, B., Tversky, B.: Ontology and Geographic Objects: An Empirical Study of Cognitive Categorization. In: Freksa, C., Mark, D.M. (eds.) COSIT 1999. LNCS, vol. 1661, pp. 283–298. Springer, Heidelberg (1999)
Medin, D.L., Atran, S. (eds.): Folkbiology. MIT Press, Cambridge (1999)
Pullum, G.K.: The great Eskimo vocabulary hoax. In: Pullum, G.K. (ed.) The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language, pp. 159–171 (1991)
Rijavec, F., Harrison, N., Soloman, R.: Exile and the Kingdom [documentary film]. Leramugadu Group Inc./Film Australia, Roebourne, Western Australia (1995)
Remenyi, D., Sherwood-Smith, M., White, T.: Achieving Maximum Value From Information Systems: A Process Approach, ch. 2. John Wiley and Sons, New York (1997)
Rosch, E.: Natural categories. Cognitive Psychology 4, 328–350 (1973a)
Rosch, E.: On the internal structure of perceptual and semantic categories. In: Moore, T.E. (ed.) Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language, Academic Press, New York (1973b)
Rosch, E.: Principles of categorization. In: Rosch, E., Lloyd, B.B. (eds.) Cognition and Categorization, Erlbaum, Hillsdale (1978)
Searle, J.R.: The Construction of Social Reality. The Free Press, New York (1995)
SIL: Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 14th edn. (2001), http://www.ethnologue.com/show_lang_family.asp?code=YIJ
Smith, B., Mark, D.M.: Ontology and Geographic Kinds. In: Poiker, T.K., Chrisman, N. (eds.) Proceedings. 8th International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling (SDH 1998), pp. 308–320. International Geographical Union, Vancouver (1998)
Smith, B., Mark, D.M.: Geographic categories: An ontological investigation. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 15(7), 591–612 (2001)
Smith, B., Mark, D.M.: Do Mountains Exist? Towards an Ontology of Landforms. Environment and Planning, B (2003) (accepted in press)
Smith, E.E., Medin, D.L.: Categories and Concepts. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1981)
Tindale, N.B.: Aboriginal Tribes of Australia. Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press, Canberra (1974)
Turk, A.G.: Presenting Aboriginal knowledge: Using technology to progress native title claims. Alternative Law Journal 21(1), 6–9 (1996)
Turk, A.G.: Tribal Boundaries of Australian Indigenous Peoples. In: Paper presented at Geographical Domain and Geographical Information Systems: EuroConference on Ontology and Epistemology for Spatial Data Standards, La Londe-les-Maures, France, September 22-27 (2000) (unpublished manuscript)
Turk, A.G.: A Critique of Government Grant Based Approaches to Addressing Digital Divide Issues in an Australian Indigenous Community. In: Proceedings of the International Conference: The Digital Divide: Technology and Politics in the Information Age, August 22-24, Hong Kong Baptist University (2002)
Turk, A.G., Trees, K.A.: Ethical Issues Concerning the Development of an Indigenous Cultural Heritage Information System. Systemist 20, 229–242 (1998) (special Issue)
Turk, A.G., Trees, K.A.: Culturally Appropriate Computer Mediated Communication: An Australian Indigenous Information System Case Study. AI and Society 13, 377–388 (1999)
Turk, A.G., Trees, K.A.: Facilitating Community Processes Through Culturally Appropriate Informatics: An Australian Indigenous Community Information System Case Study. In: Gurstein, M. (ed.) Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communication Technologies, pp. 339–358. Idea Group Publishing, USA (2000)
Turnbull, D.: Maps are Territories: Science is an Atlas. Deakin University Press, Geelong (1989)
Walsh, F., Mitchell, P. (eds.): Planning for Country: Cross-cultural Approaches to Decision-making on Aboriginal Lands. Jukurrpa Books, Central Land Council (2002)
Watson-Verran, H., Turnbull, D.: Science and Other Indigenous Knowledge Systems. In: Jasanoff, S., Markle, G.E., Petersen, J.C., Pinch, T. (eds.) Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, pp. 115–139. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (1995)
Wierzbicka, A.: Semantics - Primes and Universals. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1996)
Wilson, D.: Ontological Pluralism and Information Systems Research. In: Proceedings of PAIS II, the 2 nd Symposium and Workshop on Philosophical Aspects of Information Systems: Methodology, Theory, Practice and Critique, July 27-29, University of the West of England, Bristol (1998)
Winter, S.: Ontology: buzzword or paradigm shift in GI science? International Journal of Geographical Information Science 15(7), 587–590 (2001)
Wordick, F.J.F.: The Yindjibarndi language. Pacific linguistics. Series C, vol. 71. Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian University, Canberra (1982)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Mark, D.M., Turk, A.G. (2003). Landscape Categories in Yindjibarndi: Ontology, Environment, and Language. In: Kuhn, W., Worboys, M.F., Timpf, S. (eds) Spatial Information Theory. Foundations of Geographic Information Science. COSIT 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2825. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39923-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39923-0_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-20148-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-39923-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive