One important aspect of ethnographic fieldwork is ethnobiology: learning how humans view other living things they encounter. The ethnobiologist’s main problem is understanding the language used to describe these organisms. Imagine how calling someone a dog can be interpreted in different contexts. Between Ape and Human explores the ethnobiology of an organism that the Lio people of Flores Island (Indonesia) call lai ho’a, which Gregory Forth glosses either as “ape–man” or “hominoid.” The term has no easy translation into English, but it indicates an organism whose features seem to be a mix of humans and other primates.
Forth interviewed multiple informants over several years about the lai ho’a. He describes individual informants; the nature, location, and circumstances of encounters they reported; whether this was an eyewitness or more general historical account; and the language used in describing the lai ho’a, the encounter, and its aftermath. In one chapter,...