169Fig. 5.4 The changing resources to be found in three landscape/forest types over an annual cycle.
Previously published in [ 8 ]
5.6 Patterns of Usage
A cognitive map such as the one depicted in Fig. 5.5 would allow Solega people to
identify specifi c locations in their ecosystem at specifi c times of the year, with the
aim of either exploiting such locations for natural resources, or avoiding them for
fear of dangerous animals. In the preceding paragraph, I was careful to say that such
uses of the cognitive map (if, indeed, such a representation really does exist) are a
potential feature of Solega cognition. Potential, for two reasons: the fi rst is that as
Kitchin [ 64 ] has pointed out, the word ‘map’ may in itself be misleading, as it
implies the existence of a complete cartographic map in the mind, all the compo-
nents of which are activated at all times, waiting to be ‘consulted’ by the mind’s eye.
In the case of the dynamic Solega cognitive map, a stack of cartographic maps, one
for each part of the seasonal cycle , would be required. A far more likely scenario is
that Solega people ‘construct’ relevant parts of the map, as and when they are
required (i.e., when planning a trip), from their store of encyclopaedic knowledge
associated with particular locations for particular times of the year. I elaborate on
this point in the following paragraphs. The second reason is that in spite of the
impressive lexical diversifi cation in landscape terminology, my corpus contains sur-
prisingly few tokens of the different landscape and forest terms described in this
chapter. The words ka:ḍu and na:ḍu were used very frequently—the former to refer
to the forest in general, and contrasting with places of human habitation, or the
deforested plains region dominated by non-Solega; the later term is used to indicate
all lands inhabited by non-Solega. A common feature of the very few instances
where a more specifi c landscape or forest term was used was the need to indicate
that the entity or phenomenon being talked about was commonly found in, or
restricted in its occurrence to, that particular forest or landscape type. For example:
5.6 Patterns of Usage