BecometheOther said:
snozz, with respect the thread was started seeking info on different vines, theses threads pop up alot, but thats ok it helps disseminate info.
some good info was presented here, and gets us further than your colored list of words. i mean really what is that supposed to tell us about ayahuasca or the difference between vines? youve just named some ropes but its not furthering understanding.
heresay as you call it, or as i call it our thoughts and opinions is how we discuss things and come to a concensus about the info. its healthy discussion.
what edperiences and qualifications are necessary to talk about different types of vines. i thought it went without saying that we are not speaking with scientific authority. but i stand by the info here and think it goes further than whatever that list is supposed to tell us. were not trying to redefine the taxonamy, i think the simple goal is just to be able to know what the other person is talking about definatively. So dont just call it black aya, state were it originated and were you bought it. Then even if the scientific name is not the correct one, it doesnt matter because we will still at least know we are talking about for example the peruvian black from maya or the hawaiin mckenna red offered by several vendors.
I think we give to much power to mainstream science on this when it is the indigenous model we should be adopting.
This is my point.
You talk of "indigenous naming systems."
OK. Present one.
Present a coherent indigenous naming system, the group from which it originates, and the morphological/taxonomic components that fit the specific species being discussed.
I can do that for every plant on my list.
Can you?
I doubt it, as most of the "indigenous naming systems" people make noise about here are gestalts and vague notions of numerous systems that criss-cross and contradict each other.
We've been over this repeatedly and I really don't feel that generous towards the position of people who attempt to advance "a system" that doesn't actually exist.
Furthermore...
There is no "indigenous model"...indigenous people are not a singular entity. Discussing them as such is absurd at best. The "info here" that you refer to isn't informative. It's not tied to anything, it offers no actual meaning, it doesn't advance anything.
And finally, this is entirely fallacious reasoning:
BecometheOther said:
how did they arrive at thses names and how many samples did they really search through. i mean did they go to the shamans and say give me all of your psychoactive vines well anylize them? given the scientific attitude twords indigenous knowledge i highly doubt thats the case. so this is a western list and aya isnt a western plant. who knows more the indigenous working with the vine for thousands of years? or the scientists whom just within the last 50 years have started studying aya, and not even in most cases from an experiential standpoint. i mean they dont even drink it so what could they know?
BecometheOther said:
How did scientists arrive at these names?
Utilizing concepts of scientific botany and the nomenclatural rules laid out by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants.
BecometheOther said:
How many did they search through?
Perhaps research the process of botanical nomenclature/taxonomy and you will get some insight into how this is done.
BecometheOther said:
did they go to the shamans and say give me all of your psychoactive vines well anylize them?
This has zero bearing on botanical nomenclature/taxonomy.
BecometheOther said:
so this is a western list and aya isnt a western plant
Aya is native to the Western hemisphere, so this is a bit of a bizarre statement. That said, it's also meaningless. Plants are plants, they all have morphological traits that can be classified. The only question is how are those traits parsed. I already addressed this earlier when I acknowledged discrepancies between coherent nomenclatural systems.
If a plant has pinnate leaves, it has pinnate leaves. This is independent of any system. If your system says "this is plant A" and mine says "this is plant B" that is a gap that can be bridged, because we can both acknowledge that the plant we are talking about has pinnate leaves and see where the discrepancy is arising.
In fact, this issue is evidenced precisely in discussions about Psychotria alba and Psychotria carthagenensis. P. alba is a synonym of P. carth, rather than a separate plant, according to the most up to date botanical classifications. However, we can see what morphological characteristics have been used to distinguish it as a separate species in the past and could, therefore, easily engage with indigenous systems that actually differentiate these as two plants.
BecometheOther said:
who knows more the indigenous working with the vine for thousands of years? or the scientists whom just within the last 50 years have started studying aya
Actually, botanical study of plants used in ayahuasca is older than 50 years. And, as I just demonstrated, this is a fallacious claims that holds no water.
BecometheOther said:
and not even in most cases from an experiential standpoint. i mean they dont even drink it so what could they know?
This is also a fallacy. The experiential component has no bearing on plant morphology or systems of classification.
I've addressed the shortcomings of my "colored list of words" at numerous points in different discussions, including this one. It's really frustrating (and pretty ignorant) when people start banging the "indigenous people say..." drum in general, but even moreso when it's simply not relevant to the discussion at hand. Any indigenous nomenclatural system could be discussed using botanical concepts of taxonomy and morphology, even if that system contradicted currently accepted species concepts.
Hope that makes sense.