Las denominaciones vernáculas y el conocimiento toba del entorno vegetal

Abstract

The authors explore the perception of plants by the Toba of Rio Bermejito (Central Chaco, Argentina) by analyzing the vernacular names of Toba phytonymy. After adopting an interdisciplinary approach to the subject that combines contributions from the fields of linguistics and ethnobotany, the authors present a corpus of names and a discussion of the morpho-syntactic processes and semantic relations that are involved in the Toba naming of the species of plants. They found that the nomenclature makes reference to distinctive features and physiological or environmental aspects of the species, together with reference to their function in Toba culture. In addition, the list of plant names reveals characteristic properties of the world of hunters and gatherers; for instance, the high frequency in the list of names related to morphological aspects that call to mind the animal world as well. The analysis provides evidence of the depth and keenness of the Toba in observing and understanding their natural environment.