Parámetros de clasificación zoológica comparados: la familia Anatidae en egipcio y sumerio

Abstract

This study aims to lay the foundations for a further research project in which, through a comparative methodology, a zootechnical compendium of graphic representations linked to semantic content characteristic of the birds in the two main pre-Aristotelian classification traditions of Antiquity, Egypt and Mesopotamia, is carried out in order to establish their points of contact, affinities, possible affiliations and constitutive divergences. Focusing—for space reasons—on some significant species of the Anatidae family, we try to achieve a dual objective: to make a brief description of its possible animal behaviour from iconographic and literary sources, and, in addition, to describe the lexical-graphematic functioning of the determining signs or generic classifiers this class of birds are depicted with in both spellings. This latter aspect will be addressed from a comparative perspective that allows us to shape a kind of basic mental scheme that accounts for the functional and symbolic role that these birds possessed at the core of the symbolic world representation revealed by both spellings. Furthermore, it could help us to understand more accurately the anthropological nucleus that underlies them. The authors of this contribution start from the theoretical principle— already confirmed by recent theoretical studies—that the contrasting study of semantic classifiers can provide valuable information on the categorization and hierarchy of classes of world features represented by the speakers of these languages, particularly as they are underlying cognitive principles and rules that iconically reflect a rather coherent conceptual and spatial microcosm.