What is it about?
All societies have terms for natural species, including birds. They also have words to describe some birds at different stages in life and to draw attention to birds that are useful or special. To collect all terms for birds and bird features, it helps to distinguish the taxonomic terms that name a species (such as “falcon”) from the non-taxonomic terms (such as “talon”) that do not. When it comes to Arabic, we can find these terms in dictionaries for the standard, written language. But we also need to collect terms found in the spoken Arabic dialects that are rarely written down but often used in casual conversation. In some cases, a bird species with an Arab name is not widely known in Europe or the Americas. In these cases, the clearest definition of the Arabic term is the scientific, Linnaean definition.
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Why is it important?
I needed a complete list of Arabic terms for birds to discover when and where these terms have been used as names for Arab kinship groups. I already knew that some tribes and families – such as those called Sons of a Falcon and Eagle’s Children – are named after birds, but I suspected that there were many more than had not been recognized. By using my complete list of bird terms, I sought to identify all of Arab kinship groups that are named after birds. I wanted to show that avian names for tribes and families are not odd curiosities in the Arab world. They are examples of a broader cultural pattern that identifies human groups with natural species.
Perspectives
I hope that this article will inspire English-speaking readers to think about their own family names from a wider, cross-cultural perspective. Some English family names – Hawke, Lamb, Wolfe, and Wren – also refer to creatures. But the Arabs’ choice of certain biological terms is not exactly the same as those chosen by the English. It seems that the drive to make some connection between human society and the natural world is shared by everyone. But each society responds to this drive in its own way. This is one of the lessons that I have learned from Anthropology.
Dr. William Charles Young
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Methods for Compiling a List of Arabic Terms for Birds, January 2024, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004690370_004.
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