As a cornerstone of biodiversity science, Linnaean taxonomy has been used for almost 300 years to catalogue and organize our knowledge of the living world. In this system, the names of species themselves take on additional functions, such as describing features of the organism or honoring individuals. Here, we analyze the connections between bird species descriptions and who they honor from 1950 to 2019 within a context of global structures of power and access to science to interrogate how authority over the natural world is designated through Western scientific naming practices. We find that 95% of bird species described during this period occur in the Global South, but these species are disproportionately described by and named in honor of individuals from the Global North. We also find an increase through time in authors from the Global South, but Global North authors continue to disproportionately hold first author positions. Our findings show how research and labor in the Global South continue to be disproportionately translated into power and authority in the Global North, upholding and re-enacting imperialistic structures of domination. Addressing these inequities as a scientific community will require reflection and collective dialogue on the social foundations and impacts of our science.

中文翻译：

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科学名称的全球不平等及其尊敬的人

作为生物多样性科学的基石，林奈分类法已被使用近 300 年，用于编目和组织我们对生物世界的知识。在这个系统中，物种的名称本身具有附加功能，例如描述生物体的特征或纪念个体。在这里，我们分析了从 1950 年到 2019 年鸟类物种描述与它们在全球权力结构和科学获取的背景下之间的联系，以探究如何通过西方科学命名实践来指定对自然世界的权威。我们发现在此期间描述的 95% 的鸟类出现在全球南方，但这些物种被不成比例地描述并命名为来自全球北方的个人。我们还发现来自全球南方的作者随着时间的推移而增加，但 Global North 作者继续不成比例地担任第一作者职位。我们的研究结果表明，全球南方的研究和劳动力如何继续不成比例地转化为全球北方的权力和权威，维护和重新制定帝国主义的统治结构。作为一个科学界，解决这些不平等问题需要对我们科学的社会基础和影响进行反思和集体对话。