Article ID: CBB584907417

The Power and Performativity of Naming: A Natural and Cultural History of the Mikado Pheasant in Early Twentieth-century Taiwan and Beyond (2024)

unapi

In 1906, the Mikado pheasant, an endemic bird of Taiwan, was discovered as a new species by a British collector. As the creation of this new species was based solely on the examination of tail feathers, it generated excitement among ornithologists and aviculturists, sparking a series of expeditions to collect complete specimens. By following the trajectory of these endeavors and subsequent attempts to reclassify, propagate, and protect the bird, this article explores the power and performativity of scientific naming in both global and colonial contexts. The act of writing and publishing a species description is performative in that it creates a new species by assigning a scientific name that allows it to gain recognition within the scientific community and beyond. It also served to create and maintain the ornithological community—the idealized virtual community of ornithologists, bird collectors, and aviculturists. The history of the Mikado pheasant is part of a larger scientific effort to establish the comprehensive knowledge of the family Phasianidae, which motivated aspiring Japanese ornithologists to exert their acquired knowledge over the avifauna of the Japanese empire. These processes interacted during a time when zoological nomenclature was becoming accessible to non-Western zoologists. The discovery of the Mikado pheasant was the result of a colonial enterprise involving the British and Japanese empires, which converged on the interior of Taiwan and involved the Indigenous people who had settled in the mountain regions. The enduring legacy of the Mikado pheasant’s naming still resonates today.

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Associated with

Article Tahani Nadim; Mareike Vennen; Ina Heumann; Filippo Bertoni (2024) Logistical Natures: Trade, Traffics, and Transformations in Natural History Collecting. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences (pp. 125-134). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB584907417/

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Authors & Contributors
Birkhead, T. R.
Anderson, Thomas J.
Balen, S. van
Bircham, Peter M. M.
Bourne, W. R. P.
Datta, Ann
Journals
Archives of Natural History
British Journal for the History of Science
Journal of the History of Biology
Notornis
The Journal of New Zealand Studies
Publishers
Nuttall Ornithological Club
Academic Press
Aves Press
Collins
CSIRO Publishing
Palgrave Macmillan
Concepts
Ornithology
Birds
Zoology
Terminology and nomenclature
Natural history
Colonialism
People
Coues, Elliott
Gray, John Edward
Lack, David Lambert
Mayr, Ernst
Stresemann, Erwin
Temminck, Coenraad Jacob
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
18th century
14th century
15th century
20th century, early
Places
New Zealand
Europe
Great Britain
Australia
Denmark
Germany
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