Marten Meile Gerrit "Mart" Bax (born 13 April 1937, Zutphen)[1] is a Dutch emeritus (retired in 2002) endowed professor in political anthropology at the Vrije Universiteit (VU University), Amsterdam, the Netherlands. After his retirement, he came into prominence to the wider public in the Netherlands in 2012 due to suspicions of scientific misconduct. In September 2013, these suspicions were confirmed in an official report.
He further wrote about an anonymized pilgrimage center, called "Neerdonk" in the Dutch province of North Brabant.
He also wrote extensively about the pilgrimage center Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia.
Scientific misconduct
The presentation by Bax of the town of "Patricksville" (presumably Buttevant) as having extensive corruption, bribery, and clientelism is considered controversial among experts.[4]
He claimed in his scientific publications there had been an estimated 140 killings, 60 people missing and 600 refugees from the pilgrimage village Medjugorje, in Herzegovina during the Bosnian War (1992–1995). Bax wrote that he had based his observations on extensive local field research. He called these killings the "small war". The reason for the killings in 1991/1992 were according to Bax not ethnic conflict but a vendetta between clans. Apart from very local writings near Medjugorje these claims were first criticized in journalistic writings in 2008. In April 2013 at latest both the existence of the mass killing, missing people, and refugees turned to out to be false beyond reasonable doubt.[5]
In October 2012 the Dutch book Ontspoorde Wetenschap (Engl.: "Derailed science") by the science journalist Frank van Kolfschooten was published. In the book Van Kolfschooten pointed to the lack of confirmation of the vendetta. Bax had published anonymized results about field research that he stated to have done in a monastery in the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands. Van Kolfschooten had doubts about the existence of the monastery, because the existence of the monastery could not be confirmed by experts and because Bax refused to tell anyone in confidence the name and the location of the monastery. The writings by Van Kolfschooten were largely based on the unpublished work of Dr. Peter Jan Margry of the Meertens institute.[6][7] The Free University, Amsterdam, reacted by announcing an investigation to Bax's works.[8]
The Dutch Volkskrant newspaper wrote in April 2013 that Bax's scientific writings about the Bosnian pilgrimage site Medjugorje contained many important incorrect citations to local writings or to non-existent local writings.[9] Bax also incorrectly stated that the resident register was destroyed during the Bosnian war.[10]
The Volkskrant also wrote in the same lengthy article that approximately one third of the scientific publications that Bax had submitted to the university's internal database, called Metis, did not exist.[11] The Volkskrant accused him of fraud.[11]
A commission to investigate this possible scientific misconduct was chaired by Michiel Baud. It published its findings in a report dated September 9, 2013, which was made public on September 23, 2013.[12][13][14] The commission confirmed serious misconduct:
In the Neerdonk as well as Medjugorje case, Bax stated to have relied on one single local informant. The informant told him improbable stories about public events that were not confirmed by anyone else. Bax furthermore did not make any effort to check these stories. Bax wrote down the stories of the two alleged informants with certainty and in detail as if these were historical facts. The commission considered this methodology scientifically irresponsible and a case of serious scientific misconduct. The commission considered these stories likely to be invented either by Bax or the informants. The commission was unable to interview these two informants, because one had died and the other could not be found. Consequently the most serious scientific misconduct accusation, i.e. data fabrication by Bax, could not be proved.
Of the 161 publications claimed by Bax, 64 are non-existent. He signed off his yearly publication list, so this makes it a crime of written misrepresentation. This is fraud against his employer.[15]
The case on the pilgrimage site "Neerdonk", subject of his published inaugural speech, was considered to be invented.
The book Medjugorje: Religion, Politics, and Violence in Rural Bosnia (1995) mentions a blood feud for which there is no evidence at all. None of the inhabitants of the area are aware of anything like this happening.
Shortly after the publication of the book mentioned above, Bax stated that he misinterpreted some information, but claimed he did not have the chance to make any rectifications.
The commission established he did have the opportunity to rectify these errors at various occasions, yet never did.
After the publication of Medjugorje: Religion, Politics, and Violence in Rural Bosnia, Bax referred to the blood feud in three other articles, after he already stated to be aware of the misinterpretation, which the commission labeled as "serious scientific misconduct".
The VU announced that it will warn academic publishers against Bax.[16] The VU stated that it will not take legal steps against Bax because he is old and because the crime of written misrepresentation has passed the statute of limitations.[16]
Reactions by Bax
In Margry's own words he couldn't, starting from the mid 1990s, make sense of Bax's works regarding the Neerdonk case, or in particular of Bax's inaugural speech of 1989. Margry contacted Bax and received replies from Bax that did not remove his doubts.[17]
In 2008 the Frankfurter Rundschau did not receive a reply from Bax about the fact that he could not have observed in Medjugorje what he claimed to have observed. In 2012 Van Kolfschooten did not receive a reply to the letters that he sent to Bax.
In April 2013 Bax wrote to the Volkskrant the following.[3]
The supposed vendetta between clans in Medjugorje, which Bax referred to as the "little war", was based on a mistake which close colleagues had warned him about in 1995, in which he confused Yugoslavia during World War II (1941–1945) with the Bosnian war (1991–1995). He stated that he had tried in vain to correct his mistake with a rectification in a second edition. The second edition never appeared however. Bax did not explain why he kept on publicizing the "little war" years after the end of the Bosnian war in 1995.[18]
Bax had written that the resident register had been destroyed during the Bosnian war, which is untrue. Bax explained this by stating that a key informant had told him that he did not need to do any effort to check the killings in the "little war". Bax admitted that in hindsight, he should have done more.
Bax referred in his writings to a newspaper Mostarski List which never existed. According to Bax, this was not a newspaper but a secret pamphlet.
Regarding the missing inhabitants due to the "little war", Bax stated that he had seen vacated homes.
In 2013 the Baud committee spoke three times with Bax. In addition to the explanations to the Volkskrant, Bax said that he had written down improbable alleged historical events with certainty to make his articles accessible to readers. He stated that he had followed in this respect the example of Norbert Elias. Bax did not reply when the report of the Baud committee was released in September 2013.[19]
Bax's selected 'scientific' publications
Harpstrings and confessions : an anthropological study of politics in rural Ireland, 1973, dissertation
Figurational Analysis: A Better Perspective for Networkers. With an Illustration from Ireland. In: Anthropological Quarterly. Band 51, Nr. 4, 1978.
Religieuze regimes en staatsontwikkeling. Notities voor een figuratie-benadering. In: Amsterdams Sociologisch Tijdschrift. Band 12, Nr. 1, 1985, S. 22–48.
De vernedering van een heilige. Religieuze machtspolitiek in een zuidnederlandse dorpsgemeenschap, Hilversum, 1989, inaugural speech
Medjugorjes kleine oorlog. Barbarisering in een Bosnische bedevaartplaats. In: Amsterdams Sociologisch Tijdschrift. Band 20, Nr. 1, Amsterdam 1993, S. 3–25.
Medjugorje: Religion, Politics, and Violence in Rural Bosnia. Vrij Universiteit Uitgeverij, Amsterdam 1995. (Anthropological studies VU; v. 16) ISBN978-90-5383-384-1.
Civilization and decivilization in Bosnia. In: Ethnologia Europaea. Band 27:2, 1997.
Holy Mary and Medjugorje's Rocketeers. In: Ethnologia Europaea. Band 30:1, 2000.
Warlords, Priests and the Politics of Ethnic Cleansing: a Case-Study from Rural Bosnia Hercegovina. In: Ethnic and Racial Studies. Band 23 No. 1, Januar 2000, S. 16–36. (PDF-Datei; 194 kB)
Bibliography by others about Bax
Kolfschooten, Frank van, October 2012, Ontspoorde Wetenschap (Engl.: "Derailed science"), De Kring publishing house, Dutch language monograph about various cases of (largely recent) scientific misconduct, ISBN9789491567025
Jolić, Robert, 2013, Fabrications on Medjugorje: on Mart Bax’ Research. Studia ethnologia Croatica 25: 309-355.
Margry, Peter Jan. 2019. On Scholarly Misconduct and Fraud and What to Learn From It. In: Ethnologia Europaea 49(2): 133-144.
Radoš, Ivica article in Croatian in the Zagreb-based Jutarnji list newspaper, published on 10 August 2008
Žanič, Ivo: War and Peace in Hercegovina. Review of "Mart Bax: Medjugorje — Religion, Politics, and Violence in Rural Bosnia. Amsterdam: VU Uitgeverij/Publishing house, 1995", Zagreb 1998
External links
, article on a website supporting the truth of the Marian apparitions
Circumventing Reality: Report on the Anthropological Work of Professor Emeritus M.M.G. Bax by Michiel Baud, Susan Legêne, and Peter Pels, Amsterdam, 9 September 2013, commissioned by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, official English language version of the final report
^"Academici frauderen vaker dan instituten meldden - VU onderzoekt mogelijke fraude".
^Het Kaartenhuis van hoogleraar Bax by Richard de Boer in Volkskrant April 13, page V5
^Het Kaartenhuis van hoogleraar Bax by Richard de Boer in Volkskrant April 13, 2013, page V2
^ abHet Kaartenhuis van hoogleraar Bax by Richard de Boer in Volkskrant April 13, 2013, page V5
^"Commissie-Baud onderzoekt beschuldiging wetenschapsfraude"[permanent dead link]. VU nieuws, April 29, 2013.
^Michiel Baud, Susan Legêne, and Peter Pels (September 9, 2013). "Draaien om de werkelijkheid: Rapport over het antropologisch werk van prof. em. M.M.G. Bax" 2013-09-28 at the Wayback Machine.
^"College van Bestuur VU onderschrijft conclusies onderzoekscommissie Baud". VU nieuws, September 23, 2013.
^Michiel Baud, Susan Legêne, and Peter Pels (September 9, 2013). "Draaien om de werkelijkheid: Rapport over het antropologisch werk van prof. em. M.M.G. Bax" 2013-09-28 at the Wayback Machine pages 41 and 42
^ ab. Archived from the original on 2013-09-30. Retrieved 2013-09-28.
^Door: Richard de Boer en Maarten Keulemans − 13/04/13, 05:56 Veldstudie VU-antropoloog Bax zit vol onwaarheden. See also the complete letter from Bax linked to in that article.
mart, this, article, uses, bare, urls, which, uninformative, vulnerable, link, please, consider, converting, them, full, citations, ensure, article, remains, verifiable, maintains, consistent, citation, style, several, templates, tools, available, assist, form. This article uses bare URLs which are uninformative and vulnerable to link rot Please consider converting them to full citations to ensure the article remains verifiable and maintains a consistent citation style Several templates and tools are available to assist in formatting such as Reflinks documentation reFill documentation and Citation bot documentation September 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Marten Meile Gerrit Mart Bax born 13 April 1937 Zutphen 1 is a Dutch emeritus retired in 2002 endowed professor in political anthropology at the Vrije Universiteit VU University Amsterdam the Netherlands After his retirement he came into prominence to the wider public in the Netherlands in 2012 due to suspicions of scientific misconduct In September 2013 these suspicions were confirmed in an official report Contents 1 Biography 2 Scientific misconduct 3 Reactions by Bax 4 Bax s selected scientific publications 5 Bibliography by others about Bax 6 External links 7 See also 8 ReferencesBiography EditThis section needs expansion You can help by adding to it October 2013 He wrote his dissertation cum laude 2 for the University of Amsterdam in 1973 about the anonymized Irish town Patricksville 3 He further wrote about an anonymized pilgrimage center called Neerdonk in the Dutch province of North Brabant He also wrote extensively about the pilgrimage center Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia Scientific misconduct EditThe presentation by Bax of the town of Patricksville presumably Buttevant as having extensive corruption bribery and clientelism is considered controversial among experts 4 He claimed in his scientific publications there had been an estimated 140 killings 60 people missing and 600 refugees from the pilgrimage village Medjugorje in Herzegovina during the Bosnian War 1992 1995 Bax wrote that he had based his observations on extensive local field research He called these killings the small war The reason for the killings in 1991 1992 were according to Bax not ethnic conflict but a vendetta between clans Apart from very local writings near Medjugorje these claims were first criticized in journalistic writings in 2008 In April 2013 at latest both the existence of the mass killing missing people and refugees turned to out to be false beyond reasonable doubt 5 In October 2012 the Dutch book Ontspoorde Wetenschap Engl Derailed science by the science journalist Frank van Kolfschooten was published In the book Van Kolfschooten pointed to the lack of confirmation of the vendetta Bax had published anonymized results about field research that he stated to have done in a monastery in the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands Van Kolfschooten had doubts about the existence of the monastery because the existence of the monastery could not be confirmed by experts and because Bax refused to tell anyone in confidence the name and the location of the monastery The writings by Van Kolfschooten were largely based on the unpublished work of Dr Peter Jan Margry of the Meertens institute 6 7 The Free University Amsterdam reacted by announcing an investigation to Bax s works 8 The Dutch Volkskrant newspaper wrote in April 2013 that Bax s scientific writings about the Bosnian pilgrimage site Medjugorje contained many important incorrect citations to local writings or to non existent local writings 9 Bax also incorrectly stated that the resident register was destroyed during the Bosnian war 10 The Volkskrant also wrote in the same lengthy article that approximately one third of the scientific publications that Bax had submitted to the university s internal database called Metis did not exist 11 The Volkskrant accused him of fraud 11 A commission to investigate this possible scientific misconduct was chaired by Michiel Baud It published its findings in a report dated September 9 2013 which was made public on September 23 2013 12 13 14 The commission confirmed serious misconduct In the Neerdonk as well as Medjugorje case Bax stated to have relied on one single local informant The informant told him improbable stories about public events that were not confirmed by anyone else Bax furthermore did not make any effort to check these stories Bax wrote down the stories of the two alleged informants with certainty and in detail as if these were historical facts The commission considered this methodology scientifically irresponsible and a case of serious scientific misconduct The commission considered these stories likely to be invented either by Bax or the informants The commission was unable to interview these two informants because one had died and the other could not be found Consequently the most serious scientific misconduct accusation i e data fabrication by Bax could not be proved Of the 161 publications claimed by Bax 64 are non existent He signed off his yearly publication list so this makes it a crime of written misrepresentation This is fraud against his employer 15 The case on the pilgrimage site Neerdonk subject of his published inaugural speech was considered to be invented The book Medjugorje Religion Politics and Violence in Rural Bosnia 1995 mentions a blood feud for which there is no evidence at all None of the inhabitants of the area are aware of anything like this happening Shortly after the publication of the book mentioned above Bax stated that he misinterpreted some information but claimed he did not have the chance to make any rectifications The commission established he did have the opportunity to rectify these errors at various occasions yet never did After the publication of Medjugorje Religion Politics and Violence in Rural Bosnia Bax referred to the blood feud in three other articles after he already stated to be aware of the misinterpretation which the commission labeled as serious scientific misconduct The VU announced that it will warn academic publishers against Bax 16 The VU stated that it will not take legal steps against Bax because he is old and because the crime of written misrepresentation has passed the statute of limitations 16 Reactions by Bax EditIn Margry s own words he couldn t starting from the mid 1990s make sense of Bax s works regarding the Neerdonk case or in particular of Bax s inaugural speech of 1989 Margry contacted Bax and received replies from Bax that did not remove his doubts 17 In 2008 the Frankfurter Rundschau did not receive a reply from Bax about the fact that he could not have observed in Medjugorje what he claimed to have observed In 2012 Van Kolfschooten did not receive a reply to the letters that he sent to Bax In April 2013 Bax wrote to the Volkskrant the following 3 The supposed vendetta between clans in Medjugorje which Bax referred to as the little war was based on a mistake which close colleagues had warned him about in 1995 in which he confused Yugoslavia during World War II 1941 1945 with the Bosnian war 1991 1995 He stated that he had tried in vain to correct his mistake with a rectification in a second edition The second edition never appeared however Bax did not explain why he kept on publicizing the little war years after the end of the Bosnian war in 1995 18 Bax had written that the resident register had been destroyed during the Bosnian war which is untrue Bax explained this by stating that a key informant had told him that he did not need to do any effort to check the killings in the little war Bax admitted that in hindsight he should have done more Bax referred in his writings to a newspaper Mostarski List which never existed According to Bax this was not a newspaper but a secret pamphlet Regarding the missing inhabitants due to the little war Bax stated that he had seen vacated homes In 2013 the Baud committee spoke three times with Bax In addition to the explanations to the Volkskrant Bax said that he had written down improbable alleged historical events with certainty to make his articles accessible to readers He stated that he had followed in this respect the example of Norbert Elias Bax did not reply when the report of the Baud committee was released in September 2013 19 Bax s selected scientific publications EditHarpstrings and confessions an anthropological study of politics in rural Ireland 1973 dissertation Figurational Analysis A Better Perspective for Networkers With an Illustration from Ireland In Anthropological Quarterly Band 51 Nr 4 1978 Religieuze regimes en staatsontwikkeling Notities voor een figuratie benadering In Amsterdams Sociologisch Tijdschrift Band 12 Nr 1 1985 S 22 48 De vernedering van een heilige Religieuze machtspolitiek in een zuidnederlandse dorpsgemeenschap Hilversum 1989 inaugural speech Medjugorjes kleine oorlog Barbarisering in een Bosnische bedevaartplaats In Amsterdams Sociologisch Tijdschrift Band 20 Nr 1 Amsterdam 1993 S 3 25 Medjugorje Religion Politics and Violence in Rural Bosnia Vrij Universiteit Uitgeverij Amsterdam 1995 Anthropological studies VU v 16 ISBN 978 90 5383 384 1 Civilization and decivilization in Bosnia In Ethnologia Europaea Band 27 2 1997 Holy Mary and Medjugorje s Rocketeers In Ethnologia Europaea Band 30 1 2000 Warlords Priests and the Politics of Ethnic Cleansing a Case Study from Rural Bosnia Hercegovina In Ethnic and Racial Studies Band 23 No 1 Januar 2000 S 16 36 PDF Datei 194 kB Bibliography by others about Bax EditKolfschooten Frank van October 2012 Ontspoorde Wetenschap Engl Derailed science De Kring publishing house Dutch language monograph about various cases of largely recent scientific misconduct ISBN 9789491567025 Jolic Robert 2013 Fabrications on Medjugorje on Mart Bax Research Studia ethnologia Croatica 25 309 355 Margry Peter Jan 2019 On Scholarly Misconduct and Fraud and What to Learn From It In Ethnologia Europaea 49 2 133 144 Rados Ivica Fikcija a ne povijest article in Croatian in the Zagreb based Jutarnji list newspaper published on 10 August 2008 Zanic Ivo War and Peace in Hercegovina Review of Mart Bax Medjugorje Religion Politics and Violence in Rural Bosnia Amsterdam VU Uitgeverij Publishing house 1995 Zagreb 1998External links EditMedjugorje war massacre was a fraud by Jakob Marschner 4 November 2012 article on a website supporting the truth of the Marian apparitions Circumventing Reality Report on the Anthropological Work of Professor Emeritus M M G Bax by Michiel Baud Susan Legene and Peter Pels Amsterdam 9 September 2013 commissioned by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam official English language version of the final reportSee also EditList of scientific misconduct incidentsReferences Edit M M G Bax at the UvA Album Academicum website Album Academicum Amsterdam University the Baud report pag 31 states erroneously that he received not a cum laude but a with merit a b Het Kaartenhuis van hoogleraar Bax by Richard de Boer in Volkskrant April 13 page V3 Het Kaartenhuis van hoogleraar Bax by Richard de Boer in Volkskrant April 13 page V5 http www vu nl nl nieuws agenda nieuws 2013 jan mrt VU onderzoekt werk emeritus hoogleraar Mart Bax asp permanent dead link Ik kon begin jaren negentig al geen chocola van Bax verhaal maken by Patrick Meershoek in Het Parool September 24 2013 page 4 DPG Media Privacy Gate Academici frauderen vaker dan instituten meldden VU onderzoekt mogelijke fraude Het Kaartenhuis van hoogleraar Bax by Richard de Boer in Volkskrant April 13 page V5 Het Kaartenhuis van hoogleraar Bax by Richard de Boer in Volkskrant April 13 2013 page V2 a b Het Kaartenhuis van hoogleraar Bax by Richard de Boer in Volkskrant April 13 2013 page V5 Commissie Baud onderzoekt beschuldiging wetenschapsfraude permanent dead link VU nieuws April 29 2013 Michiel Baud Susan Legene and Peter Pels September 9 2013 Draaien om de werkelijkheid Rapport over het antropologisch werk van prof em M M G Bax Archived 2013 09 28 at the Wayback Machine College van Bestuur VU onderschrijft conclusies onderzoekscommissie Baud VU nieuws September 23 2013 Michiel Baud Susan Legene and Peter Pels September 9 2013 Draaien om de werkelijkheid Rapport over het antropologisch werk van prof em M M G Bax Archived 2013 09 28 at the Wayback Machine pages 41 and 42 a b VU gaat internationaal waarschuwen voor Bax Onderwijs VK Archived from the original on 2013 09 30 Retrieved 2013 09 28 Meershoek Patrick in Parool newspaper 24 Sept 2013 https pbs twimg com media BU9DgvBCAAEwbZB jpg large https www meertens knaw nl cms files Schermafbeelding 202013 09 27 20om 2016 58 05 png Door Richard de Boer en Maarten Keulemans 13 04 13 05 56 Veldstudie VU antropoloog Bax zit vol onwaarheden See also the complete letter from Bax linked to in that article http www advalvas vu nl nieuws E2 80 98ernstig wetenschappelijk wangedrag E2 80 99 van antropoloog bax Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Mart Bax amp oldid 1112455277, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
