living things and another to animate objects only, piqued our curiosity. We noticed that this kind of polysemy, involving nested concepts related to ANIMACY, is not unique to Wichí. Notice, for example, that English, and Spanish as well, include two sense of animal: ANIMALinclusive (which includes humans and non-human animals) and ANIMALcontrastive (which includes only non-human animals, excluding humans). There is evidence that nested meanings like this have interesting consequences on our construal of the relation among humans, non-human animals and even plants (Angorro, et.al, 2008; Angorro, Medin and Waxman, 2010; Waxman, 2005; Leddon, et.al, 2008). Participants. Participants were 17 native Wichí-speaking adults (13 women; 4 men), ranging from 15 to 52 years of age (M=29.3). Although most had learned some Spanish as a second language, they converse almost exclusively in Wichí. Participants were interviewed individually in their homes. Interviews were conducted exclusively in Wichí by a native teacher, in collaboration with the first author. Materials. We developed a set of 10 cards, each with a color photograph of a single entity. Items were chosen to cover the range of living and non-living categories plants, animals, and non-living objects (See Table 1). Procedure. The teacher/researcher explained that we were interested in learning about the meaning of husek. To begin, she simply asked, “What does husek mean for you?” Next, to understand more precisely the extension of this term, she presented each of the 10 photographs, one at the time in random order, and asked participants to name the depicted entity and to identify whether or not it has husek. Participants were encouraged to discuss their reasoning throughout the task. Scoring: Responses to each photograph were scored as 1 (yes) or 0 (no).We tabulated participants’ responses to ascertain the range of entities to which they attributed husek. Results
Results were straightforward. All participants knew the term husek, noting that it refers to a soul or a kind of spiritual entity. Most of them attributed husek only to humans and animals, and denied that it could be attributed to plants, natural kinds and artifacts. This suggests that within our target community, husek is extended to animals and humans being indeed aligned with ANIMACY. These results mirror the primary meaning of husek (social will) in the documentations published to date (Palmer, 2005). This strong pattern of interpretation was evident not only in adults’ yes/no responses, but also in their justifications. Most of the adults’ spontaneously discussed characteristics (e.g., autonomous motion, behavior) that highlight the distinction between humans and non-human animals on the one hand, and plants on the other. Notice that these same characteristics figure largely in infants’ and English-speaking children’s ANIMATE concept (e.g. Berthenthal, 1993; R. Gelman, 1990; S. Gelman& Gottfried, 1996; Opfer & S. Gelman, 2001). Thus, although Wichí speakers have no dedicated name for animate object, their attribution of husek reveals their sensitivity to this fundamental concept. ------------------------------------------Table 1 about here--------------------------------- Study 2. Evidence for LIVING THING and ANIMATE in Wichí children and adults The goal of 2 was to consider the developmental trajectory underlying the concepts of LIVING THING, and ANIMATE in Wichí-speaking children and adults. At issue is whether, and at what developmental point, Wichí individuals come to include plants along with humans and non-human animals as constituents of the fundamental concept LIVING THING. We considered two alternatives. On the one hand, because plants have such strong cultural and spiritual significance in the Wichí community and because children and adults have such extensive experience gathering and working with plants, perhaps the Wichí will
Table 1 Proportion of attribution for each entity Test items M Human .94 Jaguar .82 Dog .82 .82 Vinchuca (Triatomainfestans) .76 Mosquito .82 Bottle Tree .29 Cháguar (Bromelia sp.) .17 Sun .05 Chair 0
2 Test items used in Experiment 2 Category People Animal Plant Non-living Natural kind Artifact Person(man) Bee Carob tree Bicycle Jaguar Acacia Sun Pencil kite Cháguar (Bromelia sp.) Cloud Armadillo Rock Piranha Rattlesnake