A Folk Taxonomy is a vernacular naming system, as opposed to a scientific naming system which is simply known as a Taxonomy or as a Scientific Taxonomy. Taxonomy (from Greek ταξινομία (taxinomia) from the words taxis = order and nomos = law) may refer to either the classification of things, or the principles underlying the classification. ...

Folk Taxonomies are generated from social knowledge and are used in everyday speech. They are distinguished from scientific taxonomies that claim to be disembedded from social relations and thus objective and universal.

Anthropologists have observed that taxonomies are generally embedded in local cultural and social systems, and serve various social functions. Perhaps the most well-known and influential study of folk taxonomies is Émile Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Cultural anthropology, also called social anthropology or socio-cultural anthropology, is one of four commonly recognized fields of anthropology, the holistic study of humanity. ... David Émile Durkheim (April 15, 1858 - November 15, 1917) is known as one of the founders of modern sociology. ...

Folk Taxonomies exist to allow popular identification of classes of objects, and apply to all areas of human activity. All parts of the world have their own systems of naming local plants and animals. These naming systems are a vital aide to survival and include information such as the fruiting patterns of trees and the habits of large mammals. These localised naming systems are folk taxonomies. Theophrastus recorded evidence of a Greek folk taxonomy for plants, but later formalized botanical taxonomies were laid out in the 18th century by Carolus Linnaeus. Theophrastus, the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school, a native of Eresus in Lesbos, was born c. ... A painting of Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné   listen?, and who wrote under the Latinized name Carolus Linnaeus (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of taxonomy. ...

Critics of the concept of "race" in humans argue that race is a folk taxonomy rather than a scientific classification. A race is a distinct population of humans distinguished in some way from other humans. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ...

Although both involve observations of the stars and celestial bodies, Astrology is a folk taxonomy, while astronomy uses a scientific classification system. An astrological chart (or horoscope) - Y2K Chart — This particular chart is calculated for January 1, 2000 at 12:01:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time in New York City, New York, USA. (Longitude: 074W0023 - Latitude: 40N4251), using the tropical zodiac Astrology (from Greek: αστρολογία = άστρον, astron, star + λόγος, logos, word) is... Astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can still play an active role, especially in the discovery and monitoring of transient phenomena. ...