Taxacom: Taxonomy in the news: "Groundbreaking botanical discoveries on Captain Cook voyage were thanks to Indigenous people"

[Geoff Read]

Well, of course they were based on info from the locals.  Banks & Solander were just exploitative dilettantes who could hardly tell one plant from another.

The publisher's promo for historian Edwin Rose's book is rather more bland & opaque than the Guardian's revisionist slant on the content.  

"In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries--a period that marked the emergence of a global modernity--educated landowners, or "gentlemen," dominated the development of British natural history, utilizing networks of trade and empire to inventory nature and understand events across the world. Specimens, ranging from a Welsh bittern to the plants of Botany Bay, were collected, recorded, and classified, while books were produced in London and copies distributed and used across Britain, Continental Europe, the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas. Natural history connected a diverse range of individuals, from European landowners to Polynesian priests, incorporating, distributing, synthesizing, and appropriating information collected on a global scale. In Reading the World, Edwin D. Rose positions books, natural history specimens, and people in a close cycle of literary production and consumption. His book reveals new aspects of scientific practice and the specific roles of individuals employed to collect, synthesize, and distribute knowledge--reevaluating Joseph Banks's and Daniel Solander's investigations during James Cook's Endeavour voyage to the Pacific. Uncovering the range of skills involved in knowledge production, Rose expands our understanding of natural history as a cyclical process, from the initial collection and identification of specimens to the formal publication of descriptions to the eventual printing of sources."

For an earlier view William T Stearn's 1978 take on Banks' etc botany achievements is here:

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flir.byuh.edu%2Findex.php%2Fpacific%2Farticle%2Fview%2F2033&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C8ccf8527dd364d97019908dd497340c0%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638747481695982633%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=WwqRy48D5xbSjFT4u8k0s%2BUGWkSKhF2elmeDaf1D9zw%3D&reserved=0

The Botanical Results of Captain Cook's Three Voyages and Their Later Influence 

--
Geoffrey B. Read, Ph.D.
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
gread at actrix.gen.nz



>---- Original Message ----
>From: Andy Mabbett via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
>To: "TaxaCom" <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
>Sent: Sun, Feb 9, 2025, 8:03 AM
>Subject: Taxacom: Taxonomy in the news: "Groundbreaking botanical discoveries on Captain Cook voyage were thanks to Indigenous people"
>
>This may be of interest:
>
>   https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2025%2Ffeb%2F08%2Fgroundbreaking-botanical-discoveries-on-captain-cook-voyage-were-thanks-to-indigenous-people&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C8ccf8527dd364d97019908dd497340c0%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638747481701303365%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=aBvFz5MzFiYkeRDtpVGr%2FjHK2y%2FpFTsiVgUvBXFrKh8%3D&reserved=0
>
>I'm not sure that "shaky the binomials" is a fair description.
>
>-- 
>Andy Mabbett
>https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpigsonthewing.org.uk%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C8ccf8527dd364d97019908dd497340c0%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638747481701331053%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=tGBZWeo5ncSORFd70g9nhnmZ2PoXDOQtHiBDrzjYzgw%3D&reserved=0
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