[Taxacom] panbiogeography suppression

[Ziv Lieberman]

Apologies for the repeated message - I meant to reply to all including the
list. To reiterate:

The fact that it is occurring doesn't make it a relevant comparison. In
fact, as I pointed out, making this false equivalency detracts from the
cause of indigenous representation.

On Fri, Sep 3, 2021 at 2:57 PM John Grehan <calabar.john at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Ziv,
>
> I expect you won't know about a recent attempt in NZ by some scientists to
> disconnect Maori science from other science. So I don't understand what is
> dishonest about referencing such a possibility.
>
> Cheers, John
>
> On Fri, Sep 3, 2021 at 5:29 PM Ziv Lieberman via Taxacom <
> taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:
>
>> John,
>> Your question "why not, for example, call for the suppression of Māori
>> science?" is, at best, poorly thought through, and at worst an
>> intentional,
>> dishonest conflation of issues which is deeply disrespectful. I choose to
>> not infer where your intentions fall on this spectrum.
>>
>> While I actually don't agree with the recommendations of Waters et al.
>> (2013) to not publish panbiogeographic works as a blanket policy, there
>> are
>> some obvious differences in the scenario called for in this paper and your
>> hypothetical situation. Waters et al. (2013) lay out a cogent,
>> evidence-based, and highly specific criticism of the panbiogeographic
>> approach. They give explicit reference to epistemological and
>> methodological conflicts between panbiogeography and the modern approach,
>> which they illustrate with particular examples. In other words, they
>> clearly justify*—*or at the very least, explain*—*their contention that
>> "as
>> it stands, panbiogeography is not a useful approach for evolutionary
>> biology" (p. 3). They provide a structure which could be responded to,
>> point by point, with evidence of your own.
>>
>> Obviously, no such logical structure could be erected to dismiss research
>> produced by a (real or perceived) racial or ethnic group. Of course,
>> history has seen many such attempts to justify eugenics and other
>> scientific racism. But such arguments would be patently untrue, i.e.
>> unable
>> to withstand logical, scientific, and moral refutation.
>>
>> In summary: your choice of language and analogy degrade your point as a
>> whole, discredit your position as a critical thinker, and represent
>> co-option of social justice issues into an unrelated scientific
>> discussion.
>> In fact, the use of this analogy makes it seem like you lack an
>> understanding of the problem you are criticizing, whether that is true or
>> not. This tactic also detracts from the realities of the marginalization
>> of
>> indigenous peoples, which ironically contributes to upholding the kind of
>> (historical and present) exclusionism which you are taking advantage of to
>> express your outrage.  You cannot behave this way while simultaneously
>> calling for scientific integrity and credibility.
>>
>> -Ziv Lieberman
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>>
>