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Glottochronology and the comparative method of historical linguistics provide a linguistic approach for dating the common bean (Phaseolus vulgarisL.) that both complements and supplements archaeological dating techniques such as accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). For example, the comparative approach reveals that prehistoric languages of eastern North America having glottochronological dates earlier than 700 B.P., such as Proto‐Iroquoian (2700 B.P.), lacked words for bean. Protolanguages of the region with glottochronological dates younger than 700 B.P. had bean terms. These linguistic results accord with the AMS finding that beans do not become archaeologically visible in the region until around C.E. 1300. The earliest AMS date for beans of Mesoamerica is around 2300 B.P. This date is considerably younger than glottochronological dates for prehistoric languages of the area, such as Proto‐Mayan (3400 B.P.), for which bean terms are posited. Linguistic findings for protolanguages of Mesoamerica suggest that the regional bean chronology is considerably older than that indicated through archaeological dating.

Folkbiology. Douglas L. Medin and Scott Atran. eds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. 504 pp.

Folk zoological life‐form terms, like folk botanical life‐form terms (Brown 1977a), are added to languages in a highly regular manner. Life‐forms of the triad FISH, BIRD, and SNAKE are lexically encoded first, although in no particular order, followed by WUG (e.g., American English hug) and then MAMMAL. Four general principles of naming‐behavior underlie these regularities: (1) criteria clustering; (2) conjunctivity (including binary opposition); (3) dimension salience; and (4) marking. In addition, size of folk zoological life‐form vocabularies is positively correlated with societal complexity. This is caused by the decay of folk biological taxonomies as societies become more complex. [cognitive anthropology, ethnobiology, folk classification, language universals, language change]

Folk botanical life‐form terms are added to languages in a highly regular manner. The first life‐form to be lexically encoded is always "tree"and the second, a small herbaceous plant class (GRERB). The addition of "bush," "vine," and "grass" follows with "vine" always preceding "grass." An explanation of this encoding sequence is proposed which refers to certain general principles of naming‐behavior recently outlined by Witkowski and Brown (1977). In addition, size of folk botanical life‐form vocabularies is positively correlated with both societal complexity and botanical species diversity. An explanation of these associations is presented. [cognitive anthropology, ethnobotany, folk classification, language universale, language change]

Lexical reconstructions of Proto‐Polynesian (Branstetter 1977), Proto‐Miwok (Callaghan 1979), and Proto‐Mayan (Fox 1977; Kaufman 1964, 1969) basic color term vocabularies are presented and compared. Although these reconstructed systems accord with the well‐known Berlin and Kay (1969) color encoding sequence, they all contain a subtle distortion They generally are as large as color term systems found in contemporary daughter languages. Considering the additive nature of the color encoding sequence, these reconstructions are unlikely. Comparative linguistic evidence is presented suggesting that all three systems are over‐reconstructed. Encoding sequences, then, prove to be instruments of considerable usefulness to add to the traditional tool kit of historical linguistics. [cognitive anthropology, color classification, language change, language universale, Mayan languages, Miwok languages, Polynesian languages]