A bibliographical gem is an interesting book hidden in another book’s bibliography. Reading bibliographies is a sure sign of a geek, and the fact that I am posting something found in one kind of proves my guilt! Oh well, I have other things to worry about.

In the surprisingly long bibliography of Object Thinking is a reference to George Lakoff’s Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. That kind of title definitely stands out from the crowd! Seeking more information, I turned to Google. James Melzer explains:

“A little background for those who don’t know: women, fire, and dangerous things form parts of a fundamental category for the Dyirbal tribe of Australia. There are four categories in their mental model:

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.

Lakoff’s book synthesizes recent (and not so recent) philosophical work on the role categories play in human reason. I originally read it for a graduate class on classification theory.

So what’s the deal with the book’s title? Lakoff truncated the membership of the Dyirbal balan category for the book’s title. Obviously, the title had to be short enough to be easily memorable and catchy enough to grab attention, so he couldn’t list all the members. I think there is a lot more going on than simple salesmanship, actually.

Early in the book, Lakoff introduces several key concepts. Here is the fifty cent tour:

• Functional embodiment, which proposes that our categories for things are sometimes arrived at automatically without any conscious thought or action on our part. These categories are generally not socially constructed, which means they are probably hard-wired into all of us as both mental models and pre-programmed interaction models.
• Basic level categories, which are categories like cat, chair, and ball, that are common, easy to learn and remember, and have simple names. Lakoff reports experimental data that shows that these basic level categories are the first learned by children, the first to enter the general lexicon, and the most likely to be common across cultures.

I believe Lakoff selected his title because it demonstrates both functional embodiment categories (embodied/biological) and basic-level (common and value-rich) categories. At the same time, the three concepts that form the title already existed as a single category for the Dyibal tribesman. Add to this the catchy incongruity of the three concepts, and you’ve got a winning title.” [via James Melzer’s blog]