Ontology and values anchor indigenous and grey nomenclatures: a case study in lichen naming practices among the Samí, Sherpa, Scots, and Okanagan

There’s Something in the Water: Algae, Eliminativism, and Our Moral Obligations to Biological Beings

“…Much has been said in the philosophy of biology and theoretical biology about algae. The science of algae has figured in discussions about signalling systems and perception (Ganson 2017), cultural naming practices and their implications for the epistemology and ontology of algae (Kendig 2020), as well as the evolution of algal systems (Hanschen 2017). The effects of algal research on research methodologies in the biological sciences have also been explored (Nickelsen 2017).…”

Transdisciplinary Philosophy of Science: Meeting the Challenge of Indigenous Expertise

“…Indigenous people have developed complex epistemic traditions that are far from superficial, articulating fine-grained expertise about issues such as biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics (Chilisa 2019). As the epistemic practices of Indigenous communities have coevolved with ecosystems over many generations, they are constantly refined through daily livelihood practices such as farming, fishing, forest management, and hunting (Albuquerque et al 2021;Kendig 2020).…”

Process-Sensitive Naming: Trait Descriptors and the Shifting Semantics of Plant (Data) Science

“…The effort required to engage in processsensitive naming within the current scientific and agricultural landscape cannot be underestimated. It involves challenging the structure and inclusivity of dominant taxonomies and data infrastructures, exhorting them to forge data systems, chains of evidence and conceptual tools that explicitly bridge between epistemic cultures to better understand biodiversity (Franz and Sterner 2018), thus taking account of local knowledge and uses of the plants in question (Kendig 2020) as well as environmental factors of relevance to the traits being described, such as soil and climate. And it involves a strong and practical commitment to engaging multiple perspectiveswhich in turn demands exercising what could be conceptualised as science diplomacy, with developers brokering exchanges between various data users and continuously mediating between crop-specific, local databases and international initiatives in plant data management, many of which are led by US-and EU-based researchers or by international agencies such as FAO; and negotiating the tensions arising from attempts to link locally acquired digital information into global networks, and the related effort to regulate the transfer of information about plant genetic materials, such as germ plasm, across national borders.…”