Exercise 4. Free listing
Name of exercise: Free listing
Tools: Pen, paper, recording
cassette (optional), computer with a
standard spreadsheet program such as
Excel is useful for analyzing results.
Time needed: 1 – 2 hours
Description: Free listing
– asking respondents to give a list
of objects in a given category – is
a simple but extremely useful technique.
It is commonly used at the beginning of
ethnobotanical research to understand the
limits and members of a cultural domain
(for example, ‘edible fruits’,
‘medicinal plants’ or
‘firewood’) from a local
perspective. The results of a free
listing exercise reveal if a domain is
culturally discrete and important.
How to do it: First, decide
on a cultural domain that interests you.
Then ask some 20 – 30 people to make
individual lists of all the kinds of
things they can think of that belong to
the category or domain. The lists can
either be written down by the respondent,
or given orally (in which case the
interviewer records the list on tape or
in written form). The researcher –
potentially with the participation of the
respondents – compiles the lists,
creating a table with one column that
list all the things mentioned in one or
more of the individual lists, and another
column that shows on how many lists the
thing was mentioned. Typically, things
that are highly salient or culturally
important appear on many lists, and tend
to be mentioned early in many lists.
After compiling the results, participants
can make a bar graph with the number of
mentions on the x-axis, and the number of
things mentioned ‘x’ number of
times on the y-axis. It is very common
for the results to form a long-tailed
curve, with many things mentioned by just
a one or several respondents, and a few
things (the culturally important and
salient ones) mentioned by many people.
References:
Martin, G.J. 1995. Ethnobotany: A
Methods Manual. London, Chapman and Hall.
Chapter on anthropology.
Rastogi, A. 1999. Methods in Applied
Ethnobotany: Lessons from the Field.
Discussion Paper Series No. MNR 99/1.
Kathmnadu, International Centre for
Integrated Mountain Development.
Weller, S.C. and A.K. Romney. 1988.
Systematic Data Collection. Qualitative
Research Methods Series 10. Newbury Park,
Sage.
Example: Twenty-six fifth year
students of the Department of
Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical Botany
of Khon Kaen University made individual
free lists of fruits in Thai. The results
were tabulated by the whole class,
resulting in a complete list of 56 fruits
mentioned by one to twenty six
participants. The scientific name
corresponding to each Thai fruit name was
provided by staff members of the
Department of Pharmacognosy and
Pharmaceutical Botany. The students then
made the following table and graph to
present the results. The graph did not
have a typical "long-tailed"
form, possibly because there is a cluster
of 22 very popular and well-known fruits
that were mentioned by a majority of the
students.
Number
of mentions
|
Number
of species
|
Scientific Name |
26
|
5
|
Garcinia
mangostana, Mangifera indica,
Tamarindus indica, Dimocarpus
longan, Syzygium jambos |
25
|
2
|
Cucumis melo,
Nephelium lappaceum |
24
|
3
|
Citrus maxima,
Carica papaya, Durio zebethinus |
23
|
4
|
Cocos nucifera,
Citrullus lanatus, Psidium
guajava, Ananas comosus |
22
|
1
|
Anona squamosa |
19
|
1
|
Unidentified
species 2 |
18
|
1
|
Vitis vinifera |
17
|
1
|
Artocarpus
integrifolia |
16
|
4
|
Averrhoa
carambola, Baccuarea motleyana,
Litchi chinensis, Phyllanthus
acidus |
14
|
2
|
Lansium (Aglaia)
dookkoo, Zizyphus mauritiana |
13
|
1
|
Lansium domesticum |
12
|
2
|
Salacca rumphii,
Aegle marmelos |
11
|
2
|
Achras sapota,
Sandoricum koetjape |
9
|
2
|
Fragaria
chiloensis, Garcinia
schomburatiana |
8
|
1
|
Borassus
flabellifer |
6
|
5
|
Malus x domestica,
Muntingia calabura, Punica
granatum,Unidentified species
2,Unidentified species 3 |
5
|
5
|
Anona muricata,
Eleocharis dulcis, Nypa
fruticans, Passiflora edulis,
Prunus persica |
4
|
5
|
Arenga
saccharifera, Limonia acidissima,
Myristica fragrans, Phyllanthus
emblica, Pyrus spp. |
3
|
4
|
Diospyros kaki,
Salacca zalacca, Solanum
barbisetum, Unidentified species
4 |
2
|
4
|
Artocarpus
altilis, Averrhoa bilimbi,
Garcinia atroviridis, Syzygium
cumini |
1
|
1
|
Unidentified
species 5 |
A table showing all of the distinct
fruits mentioned, and the number of
mentions for each one.
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