Ethno-ornithology compares how ordinary people name, classify, and understand the birds they encounter in their daily lives. This topic integrates biological systematics, ecology, anthropology, linguistics, and, in the case of the Aztecs, an historical perspective. 

From Gene: I recently rediscovered a copy of Book 11 of the Florentine Codex, part of a cultural encyclopedia dedicated to "Earthy Things," one small part of a vast compendium of Aztec cultural knowledge compiled by Aztec scribes circa 1560, written in their native Nahuatl language. The work was commissioned and edited by the Franciscan Friar Bernardino de Sahagun, founder of the Colegio de la Santa Cruz, an institution devoted to the instruction (and indoctrination) of the children of the defeated Aztec nobility. 

 Chapter 2 of this book treats of the birds known to the Aztecs.  An effort in 1940, by the Mexican biologist, Rafael Martin del Campo, to identify 133 birds named and described, sometimes briefly, in other cases in considerable detail in this book, is often on target, but quite often clearly in error. We now know much more, both about Mexican birds and about the Nahuatl language. I will illustrate the surprising sophistication of Aztec bird lore, the roots of their fascination with feathers, and note as well their occasional fantastical ideas. I will analyze the challenge of equating Aztec concepts with the species concepts of today.

Stay tuned: Meeting will be Zoomed, but presentation might also be in person, COVID permitting.