Indigenous and Eurocentric Organism classification.

Indigenous and Eurocentric Organism classification
Name
Institution
Comparison between Indigenous and Eurocentric Taxonomic model of classification
The aboriginal systems of organism classification are distinct from those of Eurocentric science. The western world often considers the native taxonomy as primitive. The aborigine classifications are not confined to plants and animals but also deal with societal structures and kinship relations. Many taxonomic systems also adopt the natural domain and the spiritual one, which authenticates the physical and spiritual are acknowledged equally by the aboriginal people. Aboriginal classification systems for plants and animals are complex and highly structured and also are regional and culture-specific. The aborigines classify living things into a general plant and animal concept. From some traditions, even rocks are considered ‘beings’. They also use symbolic classification, with attention towards certain social groups (Waddy, 1988).
The Canadian Indigenous People. The Canadian Encyclopedia.
On the other hand, the Eurocentric based classification is based on the Linnaeus taxonomic unit structure. Organisms are classified according to their homogeneity or according to their structural similarity. All organisms are said to descend from common ancestry, hence a hierarchy is created on a general phylogenetic tree. The highest classification on the phylogenetic tree is three broad domains; Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. The Bacteria and Archaea lack a nucleus hence classified as prokaryotic. Under Eukarya, the classification narrows down into the 4 Kingdoms which are Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia. However, these four kingdoms are based on what the western people know hence it's not absolute.
 In general, speakers of indigenous languages in Canada rarely have a common word for the term ‘plant’. An instance is the terminology for ‘Seaweeds’ which is related to green leafy plants but its name contradicts that of terrestrial plants. Aboriginal languages happen to include general named categories for trees, bushes, grass, and grass-like plants based on vast morphological features like ‘size’ or ‘habit’.
The Seaweed getty/Images
These wide divisions mostly resemble the ‘genus’ or distinctive ‘species’ in scientific classification. Seldom in classification, have species in a genus a characteristic term unrelated to another species in the same genus.
From the Aboriginal taxonomic classification, organisms classified under the class ‘plants’ are mentioned by indicating the suffix ‘–plant’. An example is the Yarrow plant as in the Haida language: it is noted as xil sgunxulaa whereby the suffix –xil denotes “leaves, leafy plant”. The leaf is viewed as medicine hence the meaning being ambiguous. Therefore the purported name for the plant is ‘fragrant leaves or fragrant plant or fragrant medicine’ (...