origins of systematics

[Neal Evenhuis]

Steve,

I've given a talk to various groups entitled "Taxonomy: the world's oldest
profession". It is easily defended by the words of the King James version
of Genesis 2: 20

     " . . . and Adam named all the animals".

Can't get much earlier than that! Of course following that thread, it
leads to problems with egalitariansim (no women got into naming animals
until much much later) and with botanists (no plant naming jobs were
apparently sanctioned by God at that time); not to mention secularists.

Cheers,

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Neal L. Evenhuis                     |  tel:   (808) 848-4138
Department of  Natural Sciences      |  fax:   (808) 847-8252
Bishop Museum,  P.O.Box 19000        |  email: neale at bishop.bishop.hawaii.org
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817-0916 USA      |  I can't be reached at: (808) 555-3423
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Any resemblance between the above views and those of my employer, my
terminal, or the view out my window are purely coincidental.  Any
resemblance between the above and my own views is non-deterministic. The
question of the existence of views in the absence of anyone to hold them
is left as an exercise for the reader.  The question of the existence of
the reader is left as an exercise for the second god coefficient.  (A
discussion of non-orthogonal, non-integral polytheism is beyond the scope
of this message.)
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