The oldest Western traditions of naming and classifying animals arose from the Judaeo-Christian tradition, and zoological organization certainly has a prominent place in the Scriptures. Adam was created on the same day as the beasts of the Earth—a surprising nod to the modern concept of “man as an animal”—and one of the very first tasks assigned to him was to name those beasts. Indeed, it is notable that God only decided to create Eve because his non-human creations were not up to the task of accompanying and helping Adam.
This biblical trope of animal classification continues later in, and is perhaps partly explained by, detailed proscriptions against eating certain animals. Leviticus, Chapter XI contains what we would now call “decision trees” relating to the eating of animals with cloven hooves, that chew the cud, or that have fins and scales. It is possible that these rules derived from earlier trial-and-error ...
