ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ජන නාමකරණය රටාව සහ සමූදාශ්‍රිත සත්ත්වයෝ

Abstract

It is very slight dichotomy can found between the LQGLJHQRXV DQG VFLHQWL¿F NQRZOHGJH $SSURDFKHV of classifying the natural world can be seen in both paths of knowledge. The folk taxonomies are not necessarily complicated as the taxonomic approach in natural sciences, but hold the secrets of the ways how our ancestors survived in nature. Though any given indigenous knowledge is locality-specific and shaped by its associated environments, it is not static, but a mixture of local and alien knowledge communicated from the other geographical areas. The present paper is examining some such critical attributes of the Sri Lankan folk - taxonomic or the naming systems with a special reference to the coastal and marine DQLPDOV VXFK DV PROOXVFV DQG ¿VK ,W LV SULPDULO\ focusing on the folk names, approaches to study such names and possible multicultural links for the derivation of such names.This will be a minuscule study of the tress (gaskolan) and animals (saththu / thirisan) in Sri Lanka which is materially and spiritually linked with the people, hence need to be extensively studied by the linguists, ethnobiologist, anthropologist and archaeologists with a cognitive approach.