Trading eponymous names, which treat birds as passive objects, for richer descriptive names reflects this sea change in our understanding of avian lives."
Diana Beatty
El Paso County
Thanks to Don Jones for sharing a link from Kenn Kaufman that summarizes some of Kenn's recent research on eponymous names and the history of ornithology. The report provides objective historical facts that most birders, like me, never realized. Each of us can draw our own conclusions from his findings about the historical value of eponymous names and whether they should be retained for historical reasons. Here is one of his findings:--From the 1820s to the early 1840s in North America, John James Audubon was handing out eponyms like candy. At first he was trying to court favor with British naturalists (like Bewick, Henslow, or Swainson) or with wealthy individuals who might support his work. Later he used names to honor various friends and colleagues (like Harris, Sprague, or Bell).Greg OslandLarimer County
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“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
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So we change the name of Swainson’s Warbler.
Wintering Swainson’s Warblers are in the Caribbean and southern Mexico and also central Jamaica.
How are we not imposing our values on other countries where these birds are all addressed by their ENGLISH common names?
And to quote Jon Dunn: “The AOS will do outreach to individuals and organizations in Latin America to see how they feel about the changing of the English names and how to go about it. What happens if they say "no thank you?" Many of those species that are of rare to accidental occurrence have well-established English names. What right do we have to change those names? Forcing new English names seems like more examples of "American Imperialism," the very thing that the movement to replace English names decries against ("colonialism").”
Swainson’s Warbler does not “belong” to us here in the U.S. nor does it “belong” to the AOS. What right does any governing body in the U.S. have to change the name of a bird that spends three-quarters of its life in mostly non-English speaking countries? How is this not imposing our “western baggage” on other parts of the world?
The whole point of the article is the very idea that we can force this change on other countries smacks of the new colonialism.
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