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Researchers have recorded and attributed certain traits

to the Kawaiisu, and attached social significance to those

traits. In this process of classification, specific traits

are regarded by researchers as socially significant while

others are not. In the academic world, actual behaviors and

social practices alone have become the criteria for defining

what it means to be Kawaiisu. This form of classification

provides ways in which scholars, laymen, and the group being

classified (in this case, the Kawaiisu) may "socially

perceive and ignore, recognize and misrecognize, be and act"
(Brown, 1993). In other words, such classifications become

"definitions of personhood" (Brown, 1993). Geertz (1973)
asserted that human beings could not be defined by actual

behaviors alone just as they could not be defined by innate
capacities alone. Geertz acknowledged that social

scientists were in the habit of defining people largely by
their behaviors. These definitions have traditionally

reflected the world view of a privileged group of scholars

and not the world view of the group being defined.

In the process of collecting and classifying

information, countless local or regional histories that tell

the stories of families and communities are disregarded,

deemed boring or unworthy by academia. The history and life

experiences of minorities and women have traditionally been

excluded from the realm of academia, often resulting in the

loss of knowledge about their heritage and experiences.