Problems of folk taxonomy have been discussed by many
scholars. This paper presents the differences and similarities in
taxonomies of illness given by four Toba-Batak informants. The
data were analysed using the KJ method, a technique developed
by Kawakita Jiro. It is somewhat similar to Berlin's slip sorting
task, but differs in the following ways : (1) moving up from terminal
categories to upper levels; (2) naming a grouped cluster of paper
slips; and (3) ordering named clusters according to their relational
distances.
For the Toba-Batak data the taxonomic differences of illness,
appearing in the upper level of the taxonomy, seem to be caused by
differing orientations of the informants. One informant made up
a taxonomy from the viewpoint of curing illness and another organized
it according to the identifying terminologies used in illness.
The similarities of each taxonomy given by the four informants at
lower level indicate that the same groupings of terminal categories
of illness exist.
Results of the analysis show that there is no common folk
taxonomy of illness among the Toba-Batak, but only clusters of
terminal categories of illness. They sometimes made new categories
at the upper level of taxonomy. The categories may therefore be
considered covert. Naming the categories gives a more accurate
understanding of their subconscious thoughts.
The Toba-Batak people did not feel it necessary to make up
taxonomy of illness. There is, therefore, no common taxonomy
among them, but potential taxonomies which may become overt
in a particular situation. The potential taxonomies can be under-stood when more data, from a larger number of informants, become vailable.
トバ・バタック族における病気の民俗分類
KH_003_3_002.pdf
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