BALEE & MOORE: SIMILARITY AND VARIATION IN PLANT NAMES 213


importance of the plants designated by those words. The present study differs
from that of Berlin et al. (1973) in several ways. First, we introduce
comparable data on five languages of the same language family as opposed to
two, yielding comparison of 10 pairs of languages instead of one. Second, the
present study is organized according to botanical referents instead of
indigenous plant words themselves. Whereas Berlin et al. (1973) generally
compared folk generic names for botanical species held in common between
the two Mayan groups and then counted pairs of similar words, we compare
similar and dissimilar words in terms of the botanical species themselves.
Third, the present study shows dissimilar as well as similar names for botanical
species and all these names are glossed morphemically. As such, our data
permit insights into patterns of nomenclature of plants and the relationship of
these patterns to culture. Despite the differences, the findings of this study
independently support the contention of Berlin et al. (1973) that some cultural
process is involved in the similarity of plant words. We suggest, however, that
the analysis of Berlin et al. (1973) may be further refined in terms of
identifying the exact cultural and linguistic processes at work.


 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


 Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of
Ethnobiology (Gainesville, 1987), International Congress of Ethnobiology (Belem 1988), and at
the Wenner-Gren Conference "Amazonian Synthesis" (Nova Friburgo 1989). Grateful
acknowledgement is made to the Edward John Noble Foundation, Institute of Economic Botany
(New York Botanical Garden), and the CNPq (National Council on Science and Technological
Development) for funding of this research. We are indebted also to the CNPq, the Museu
Paraense Emilio Goeldi, and the FUNAI (National Indian Foundation) for institutional support
in Brazil. We sincerely thank the botanists who made expert determinations of many plants cited
herein: P. Acevedo-Rodriguez, W. Anderson, R. Barneby, C.C. Berg, B. Boom, R. Callejas, L.
Constance, D. Daly, A. Gentry, C. Jeffrey, J. Kallunki, R.J.M. Maas, A. Mennega, J. Mickel, J.
Mitchell, M. Nee, G.T. Prance, J. Pruski, and C. Sastre. Several species were also determined by
Manuel Cordeiro and Nelson A. Rosa, to whom grateful acknowledgement is made. Helpful
comments on the substance of the paper were generously supplied by Aryon D. Rodrigues, Pierre
and Francoise Grenand, Brent Berlin, and two anonymous reviewers. We wish to express our
most profound gratitude to the native speakers of Arawet6, Asurini, Ka'apor, Temb6, and
WayApi, whose cooperation was indispensable. Whatever shortcomings this article may contain
are attributable solely to the authors.