[Taxacom] panbiogeography suppression

[JF Mate]

"Maori science". Unpack that John. As Ziv had said, other than the call to
journals to reject papers at face value the rest of their article is spot
on. Science is falsifiability through evidence and Croizatian
panbiogeography is pretty much the opposite in many cases (it is
cherrypicking). I (and most taxonomists I believe) have no issue with
articles that collect "patterns" which are a priori consistent with
geological processes. That is the bread and butter of biogeography but it
needs to be tested. When it becomes "not science" is when patterns are
rammed down the throat in spite of other evidence, which invariably is
disregarded as "defective". This makes it pseudo-science. If your patterns
are incongruent with other evidence then they are doubtful and when
inconsistent with all other evidence then it is, lacking other evidence,
wrong. Accept that and you will find people more receptive.

Best

Jason

On Sat., 4 Sep. 2021, 07:57 John Grehan via Taxacom, <
taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> 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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