New study on colonialism within paleontology

[Ikessauro]

I know the subject might be controversial, but it needs to be addressed. Unfortunately scientific colonialism still happens in paleontology nowadays, but the issue has never been brought to discussion in a proper way that could solve the problem.
Today a paper has been published quantifying this problem, using Mexican and Brazilian fossils as case studies. The authors present several examples of the problem, show how this negatively impacts the "colonized" countries and even international collaborations in science. More than that the authors reply to the more common arguments about why this colonialism exploration of fossils are not justified. They also offer a few solutions to start creating a more balanced, fair research practices that benefits everyone equally, helping to move scientific knowledge forwards.


https://www.science.org/content/article/institutions-global-north-hoard-fossils-brazil-study-says

[Thialfi]

Wow, that's a great and very urgent subject. Thanks for sharing, I will definitely be reading this.

[stargatedalek]

I can't help but question whether the Portuguese government of Brazil has any place complaining about colonialism.

That's like the Catholic Church talking about the destruction of First Nations culture.

Once they start crediting the native peoples whose lands Brazilian fossils have been found on, we can start talking about foreign scientists describing fossils taken from Brazil.

[DinoToyForum]

Here's a link to the actual paper by Cisneros et al. (2022): https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.210898
Fortunately it is open access!

[JohannesB]

I can't help but question whether the Portuguese government of Brazil has any place complaining about colonialism.

That's like the Catholic Church talking about the destruction of First Nations culture.

Once they start crediting the native peoples whose lands Brazilian fossils have been found on, we can start talking about foreign scientists describing fossils taken from Brazil.

How true.

[Halichoeres]

Thanks for sharing this, @Ikessauro, definitely thought-provoking.

I can't help but question whether the Portuguese government of Brazil has any place complaining about colonialism.

That's like the Catholic Church talking about the destruction of First Nations culture.

Once they start crediting the native peoples whose lands Brazilian fossils have been found on, we can start talking about foreign scientists describing fossils taken from Brazil.

The logic here is that because the government of Brazil (and Portugal before it) has done unjust things, it has no standing to make or enforce laws? I think this is a tu quoque fallacy, which is a combination of a red herring and an ad hominem, in that it alleges hypocrisy without engaging the substance of the claim that is supposedly being rebutted. Every government in the Americas has done wrong by its indigenous inhabitants, it does not follow that they have no right to try to prevent further colonial rapacity.

[stargatedalek]

Thanks for sharing this, @Ikessauro, definitely thought-provoking.

I can't help but question whether the Portuguese government of Brazil has any place complaining about colonialism.

That's like the Catholic Church talking about the destruction of First Nations culture.

Once they start crediting the native peoples whose lands Brazilian fossils have been found on, we can start talking about foreign scientists describing fossils taken from Brazil.

The logic here is that because the government of Brazil (and Portugal before it) has done unjust things, it has no standing to make or enforce laws? I think this is a tu quoque fallacy, which is a combination of a red herring and an ad hominem, in that it alleges hypocrisy without engaging the substance of the claim that is supposedly being rebutted. Every government in the Americas has done wrong by its indigenous inhabitants, it does not follow that they have no right to try to prevent further colonial rapacity.

I meant more that colonialism "carried out against" Caucasian populations is not particularly relevant in the face of continued ramifications from colonialism and colonialist policies. It feels appropriative, and frankly makes me a little angry, to even call this colonialism.

Is it good that foreign countries are flaunting regional laws? No. But I don't think the colonizers should get to start crying colonialism when the systems and cultural expectations they established continue moving no longer in their favour.

[Ikessauro]

I can't help but question whether the Portuguese government of Brazil has any place complaining about colonialism.

That's like the Catholic Church talking about the destruction of First Nations culture.

Once they start crediting the native peoples whose lands Brazilian fossils have been found on, we can start talking about foreign scientists describing fossils taken from Brazil.

This makes no sense at all. If I would to consider this comment as true, then no white person can fight for the rights of people of color, because their ancestors were slave owners or prejudiced against other ethnicities. You are not giving a reasonable argument for why we don't need to fight unethical behavior today, this is a clear example of "Whataboutism" to avoid offering a real argument.

[Ikessauro]

Is it good that foreign countries are flaunting regional laws? No. But I don't think the colonizers should get to start crying colonialism when the systems and cultural expectations they established continue moving no longer in their favour.

I think every major change in society requires baby steps and continued work from people that care. We can not change the past. We can not change the present status quo at once, so we must do our part to ensure people are more aware of these problems. If our ancestors made mistakes, it is up to our generation and the future ones to make sure those mistakes cease to happen.

Saying that Brazilians are colonialists complaining from colonialist practices does not make sense. First of all because a large part of the population is descendant in some part of indigenous people from the Americas and African slaves. Not everybody here is a direct descendant of white Portuguese royalty.

[stargatedalek]

If Canada had a policy that all fossils found in Canada had to be published by a paper with a Canadian scientist on the team, I would call that nationalistic protectionist nonsense that risks interfering with scientific integrity.

Just because I don't like this law (which is hypothetical in Canada but real in Brazil), doesn't mean that it's ok to flaunt disregard for it, and it certainly doesn't make it ok to support smuggling and other widely harmful practices in order to avoid it.

But if people were smuggling fossils out of Canada to avoid that law, or scientists were buying fossils that had been smuggled and then ignoring that law, I would not call that colonialism.

Again, I think calling this practice colonialism is insulting and disrespectful. It minimizes the serious and ongoing damages of colonialism to refer to any flaunting of foreign laws as colonialist.

*edit*

I'm not saying white people can't participate in social justice or reform, or that "we can't do X because we haven't done Y yet". Those are very illogical and silly things to say that are often used to further disenfranchisement of marginalized people or organizations. I'm saying colonizer governments shouldn't get to scream colonialism whenever people disrespect or ignore their laws abroad. It lessens the very serious nature of the term and it's important use in modern politics.

[Ikessauro]

If Canada had a policy that all fossils found in Canada had to be published by a paper with a Canadian scientist on the team, I would call that nationalistic protectionist nonsense that risks interfering with scientific integrity.

Just because I don't like this law (which is hypothetical in Canada but real in Brazil), doesn't mean that it's ok to flaunt disregard for it, and it certainly doesn't make it ok to support smuggling and other widely harmful practices in order to avoid it.

But if people were smuggling fossils out of Canada to avoid that law, or scientists were buying fossils that had been smuggled and then ignoring that law, I would not call that colonialism.

Again, I think calling this practice colonialism is insulting and disrespectful. It minimizes the serious and ongoing damages of colonialism to refer to any flaunting of foreign laws as colonialist.

*edit*

I'm not saying white people can't participate in social justice or reform, or that "we can't do X because we haven't done Y yet". Those are very illogical and silly things to say that are often used to further disenfranchisement of marginalized people or organizations. I'm saying colonizer governments shouldn't get to scream colonialism whenever people disrespect or ignore their laws abroad. It lessens the very serious nature of the term and it's important use in modern politics.

It is funny that you use Canada as an hypotetical example, a clear case of a "first world country". Originally a colony, yes, but not anymore. Hapily for Canadians, their country had better luck (or talent?) in developing their economy than most colonies. Perhaps because of sharing a language and history/culture with rich and powerful nations such as UK, USA, France? I'm sure you are much more educated in that subjetc than me, so no need to go any further into it. The point is, nobody would mess with a rich country's laws. They know better. 

Since your problem here is with the definition of "colonialism", let's try and understand what you define by colonialist practices. You can tell me your definition if you like, but I'll be simple. Here's a quick  definition I grabbed from the first result in Google Search. From National Geographyc website:

Colonialism is defined as "control by one power over a dependent area or people." It occurs when one nation subjugates another, conquering its population and exploiting it, often while forcing its own language and cultural values upon its people.

Brasil was conquered and colonized by Europeans? Check! Brasil was forced to use European language and culture/religion? Check! Brasil isn't as developed today as it could have been, if it weren't treated as a colony? Check, at least partially! Now let's aply that to paleontology.

Ask any Brazilian kid what their favorite dinosaur is. They will say, Velociraptor, T.rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Baryonyx. Heck, even my favorite dinosaur is Dilophosaurus! You ask any common Brazilian if they know of a Brazilian dinosaur species and they usually respond with surprise, just then finding out that there actually were dinosaurs here.

Most think dinosaurs are only a thing from North America and Europe. I think that is a pretty clear example of imported (I don't wanna say forced) culture right there. Another Check! Most people only find out about new dinosaur species if foreign movies or books depict them.

Then you might say that there is no colonialism involved here, because people can go study  books and go to museums to learn about the fossils of their countries. But wait. Most books about dinosaurs are published in English. Most papers in paleontology are too. Most papers are expensive to access if not open access. Not everyone in a developing country has the resources (or knows how to acess them) to learn English or buy books from overseas, let alone to travel abroad to go to a museum. They simply can't affort it, since most people are worried if they will earn enough to feed their families and pay their basic bills. Hapily that lack of access to scientific material is being remedied by internet access and science communication from a bunch of younger scientists, but it is a very slow process.

You ask people here how many times they had the opportunity of going to a museum to see a mounted dinosaur or impressive fossil  in their country. The answer is probably never for 97% + of Brazilians. Because our best fossils were smuggled out of the country. If they are not here, there are no reasons for the government to invest their funds in creating museums with better infrastructure, there is no motive for them to offer research funds to institutions. Also even where there are museums, they are filled with less impressive specimens that don't help gather publich attention. So rich countries people taking our scientific resources prevents the country development, or at least slows it down a lot, perpertuating inequality. Now Brazilian scientists are dependant on foreign scientists and museums to access fossils of their own land. Even if they are authorized to access said material, most can't afford to travel overseas to do it. Again, the rich country gets the good part, the poor country gets all the down sides.

So, I think that by coming here and smugling fossils out of the country, or paying someone to do it, usually very poor people that live nearby fossil sites, is a clear example of colonialism, especially if the law states that this if prohibited. By doing that, rich country researchers take a fossil away, leaving little payment for it, preventing the poor regions of the fossil sites to develop into a scientific hub, a turistic atraction etc. Reminds me of stories about European colonizers that arrived here and traded cheap trinkets for gold, silver, wood and other important resources, fooling natives at first, before enlaving them or exterminating their people or forcing them to adopt the European culture.

People that are poor and end up doing fossil smugling to put some food on their tables are dependant, are vulnerable. They don't know better, because they haven't had a chance to learn. Again, because they always were treated as only cheap labor in a less developed country.

But if their small towns could keep their fossils, build a local museum, create tourism, that could create plenty jobs for people to get out of poverty, get more interested in science and learn the value of the fossils and while doing so and help more researchers in the country to have access to fossils that otherwise would be smugled to rich countrie's museums that are already overstocked with fossils. Foreign researchers would be more than welcome to come and visit, do research here or even take fossils on loans, as long as they are returned after being studied.

When people from rich countries continue to explore resources from less developed countries that used to be colonies and are less developed because of that, without benefiting both sides of the equation, it looks like colonialism to me. The country that is exploited is left with less resources and all the "damage" to deal with, like environmental damage among other kinds, such as the lack of education or lack of opportunity to educate their people, create more professionals in the area etc.

What is happening now is that a few Brazilian paleontologists are starting to act in order to prevent any more fossil material from being exported illegaly and permanently without the country having any benefit in return. I would say that you should not think of this situation as the Brazilian Government as a the main actor here. Make no mistake, this is an effort being carried mostly by Brazilian paleontologists. The goverment has created those laws in the past. Yes. But their enforcement of them has been minimal in the past. Because most of the government is also clueless about our fossil heritage, their scientific value and
cultural importance in promoting science. Our paleontologists want to stop fossil trafficking in favour of the people of Brazil, not the government. The people need access to knowledge, to education, to remedy the unfair situation colonialism put them in in the first place.

And the paleontologists that are doing this movement to stop fossil smugling are using the laws that exist in their favor as best as they can. They are not nationalistic people trying to isolate Brazilian fossils from overseas researchers. They only want a fair collaboration out of it.

If foreign researchers want to study our fossils, they will be welcome to do so. As long as our people benefits in some way. Be it by a local author participating in the research or some other way. It is not strictly necessary to have a Brazilian researcher as an author to publish on our fossils. But it is necessary to at least have an afiliation with a Brazilian institution to do the research. If the fossils are studied outside of the country, all we ask is that they be returned to Brasil after the study is completed.

That way, the foreign researcher benefits by doing the research, science benefits from more data, Brazilian people benefit from having more access to their fossils, as a tool to improve interest in science, education and to spread more interest in paleontology, thus leading to more people caring about it, which makes asking the government for more funds easier. That creates a virtuous cicle that will make more people in Brazil become paleontologists and dig for more fossils. Those new fossils will be studied with accurate precise stratigraphic information, unlike many smuggled fossils that end up overseas in private collections, and are published on without information on where it was collected exactly.

If interfering with scientific integrity is a concern for you, you should realize that most Brazilian fossils published overseas, that came from fossil trafficking lack a lot of accurate information on their geological settings. That affects science directly.