Women, Fire, & Dangerous Things

From:

Lakoff, George (1987), Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind (Chicago: University of Chicago Press): 92-96.

"Here is a brief version of the Dyirbal ["an aboriginal language of Australia"] classification of objects in the universe....:"

1. Bayi: men, kangaroos, possums, bats, most snakes, most fishes, some birds, most insects, the moon, storms, rainbows, boomerangs, some spears, etc.

2. Balan: women, bandicoots, dogs, platypus, echidna, some snakes, some fishes, most birds, fireflies, scorpions, crickets, the hairy mary grub, anything connected with water or fire, sun and stars, shields, some spears, some trees, etc.

3. Balam: all edible fruit and the plants that bear them, tubers, ferns, honey, cigarettes, wine, cake

4. Bala: parts of the body, meat, bees, wind, yamsticks, some spears, most trees, grass, mud stones, noises and language, etc.

[R.M.W.] Dixon's proposed basic schema is this:

1. Bayi: (human) males; animals

2. Balan: (human) females; water; fire; fighting

3. Balam: nonflesh food

4. Bala: everything not in the other classes