Meaning & use
ethnoscience
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountabletechnical
The study of how a particular culture classifies and understands the natural world in its own terms.
Grammar: Uncountable, so no plural and no 'a': research in ethnoscience, not 'an ethnoscience'.
Patterns
- the study of ethnoscience
- research in ethnoscience
- ethnoscience and traditional knowledge
Her fieldwork in ethnoscience recorded how local farmers name and group their soils.
Ethnoscience shows that different cultures divide plants and animals in very different ways.
The course combines botany with ethnoscience to document indigenous knowledge.
nouncountabletechnical
A particular culture's own system of knowledge, especially about plants, animals, weather, and healing.
Grammar: Countable in this sense: the ethnoscience of a people, and plural 'ethnosciences' for several such systems.
Patterns
- the ethnoscience of a group
- compare two ethnosciences
The ethnoscience of the islanders includes detailed knowledge of ocean currents.
Researchers compared the ethnosciences of two neighboring communities.
Word forms
| plural | ethnosciences |
|---|
Common combinations
- the study of ethnoscience
- The study of ethnoscience began with anthropologists in the 1950s.
- research in ethnoscience
- She published her research in ethnoscience last year.
- indigenous ethnoscience
- Indigenous ethnoscience often predicts weather better than local forecasts.
- ethnoscience and anthropology
- The department offers a joint program in ethnoscience and anthropology.
- document ethnoscience
- The team traveled to the highlands to document ethnoscience before it disappeared.
Synonyms and how they differ
- traditional knowledge
- Broader and more common; it covers practical skills and beliefs, not only how people classify nature.
- indigenous knowledge
- Often used for the knowledge of native peoples specifically, while 'ethnoscience' is the academic field that studies it.
- folk taxonomy
- Much narrower: it refers only to how a culture sorts living things into groups.
Word family
- ethnoscientist noun
- A researcher who studies how a culture understands nature.
- ethnoscientific adjective
- Relating to ethnoscience or its methods.
- ethnobotany noun
- The related study of how people use plants.
- ethnography noun
- The wider method of describing a culture through close observation.
Commonly confused: ethnoscience or ethnocentrism? ethnoscience or neuroscience?
ethnoscience vs ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism means judging other cultures by your own standards, while ethnoscience simply studies how a culture organizes its knowledge.
ethnoscience vs neuroscience
The sound is similar at the end, but neuroscience is the study of the brain and nervous system.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'ethnoscience' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Ethnoscience examines a culture's own ways of understanding the natural world. Option 1 describes neuroscience, option 2 describes ethnocentrism, and option 3 is simply unrelated.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ethnoscience”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.