The naming of parts
Why do we have a compulsion to want to name all that is observable? Is it because, once we have given something a label, we therefore imagine some sort of ownership of it? Do we also imagine that we have, at the same time, tamed it? I would like to be able to observe the wildlife that I come across without the need to know exactly what it is. Why can I not be satisfied with watching the tumbling display and haunting calls of a particular bird, and appreciate it for being just that without needing to know that it is a Lapwing? As much as I can wallow in the stygian gloom of a damp woodland dell, my day is sullied by my inability to identify the mosses that are present within it. This ‘naming of parts’ is a recent human phenomenon. It is only in the past 350 years (give or take a few) that we, as a species, have got involved in cataloguing what is also sharing the planet with us, purely out of curiosity and the wish for knowledge. There were of course names for certa...