The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination

The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination PDF Author: Harriet Ritvo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animals
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description

The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination

The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination PDF Author: Harriet Ritvo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animals
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description


The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination

The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination PDF Author: Harriet Ritvo
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780674673571
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
"Cats is 'dogs,' and rabbits is 'dogs,' and so's parrots; but this `ere 'tortis' is a insect," a porter explains to an astonished traveler in a nineteenth-century Punch cartoon. Railways were not the only British institution to schematize the world. This enormously entertaining book captures the fervor of the Victorian age for classifying and categorizing every new specimen, plant or animal, that British explorers and soldiers and sailors brought home. As she depicts a whole complex of competing groups deploying rival schemes and nomenclatures, Harriet Ritvo shows us a society drawing and redrawing its own boundaries and ultimately identifying itself. The experts (whether calling themselves naturalists, zoologists, or comparative anatomists) agreed on their superior authority if nothing else, but the laymen had their say--and Ritvo shows us a world in which butchers and artists, farmers and showmen vied to impose order on the wild profusion of nature. Sometimes assumptions or preoccupations overlapped; sometimes open disagreement or hostility emerged, exposing fissures in the social fabric or contested cultural territory. Of the greatest interest were creatures that confounded or crossed established categories; in the discussions provoked by these mishaps, monstrosities, and hybrids we can see ideas about human society--about the sexual proclivities of women, for instance, or the imagined hierarchy of nations and races. A thoroughly absorbing account of taxonomy--as zoological classification and as anthropological study--The Platypus and the Mermaid offers a new perspective on the constantly shifting, ever suggestive interactions of scientific lore, cultural ideas, and the popular imagination.

The Cambridge Companion to Alexander Pope

The Cambridge Companion to Alexander Pope PDF Author: Pat Rogers
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139827324
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Alexander Pope was the greatest poet of his age and the dominant influence on eighteenth-century British poetry. His large oeuvre, written over a thirty-year period, encompasses satires, odes and political verse and reflects the sexual, moral and cultural issues of the world around him, often in brilliant lines and phrases which have become part of our language today. This is the first overview to analyse the full range of Pope's work and to set it in its historical and cultural context. Specially commissioned essays by leading scholars explore all of Pope's major works, including the sexual politics of The Rape of the Lock, the philosophical enquiries of An Essay on Man and the Moral Essays, and the mock-heroic of The Dunciad in its various forms. This volume will be indispensable not only for students and scholars of Pope's work, but also for all those interested in the Augustan age.

Performance and Evolution in the Age of Darwin

Performance and Evolution in the Age of Darwin PDF Author: Jane Goodall
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415243780
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Jane Goodall reveals the ways in which the major themes of evolution were taken up in the performing arts during Darwin's adult lifetime and in the generation after his death.

Reopening the Opening of Japan

Reopening the Opening of Japan PDF Author: Lewis Bremner
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004685200
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
The 'Opening of Japan' has been central to the retelling of Japan's modern history. Reopening the Opening of Japan fundamentally reconsiders what that historical moment entailed. What did intensified connections between Japan and the world mean both inside and outside of the country, and what does this tell us about Japan's historical significance on a global scale? The chapters excavate a rich array of surprising cross-border connections, from the global trade in mummified mermaids to the Japanese-Russian intellectual links underpinning the work of Akira Kurosawa. Re-thinking connectivity through non-state transnational perspectives, the book guides readers to new ways of doing and writing history. Contributors are: Lewis Bremner, Natalia Doan, Manimporok Dotulong, Maki Fukuoka, Eiko Honda, Sho Konishi, Mateja Kovacic, Joel Littler, Chinami Oka, Yu Sakai, Olga Solovieva, and Warren Stanislaus.

Animals in Irish Literature and Culture

Animals in Irish Literature and Culture PDF Author: Kathryn Kirkpatrick
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137434805
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Animals in Irish Literature and Culture spans the early modern period to the present, exploring colonial, post-colonial, and globalized manifestations of Ireland as country and state as well as the human animal and non-human animal migrations that challenge a variety of literal and cultural borders.

Interspecies Interactions

Interspecies Interactions PDF Author: Sarah Cockram
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351612638
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Book Description
Interspecies Interactions surveys the rapidly developing field of human-animal relations from the late medieval and early modern eras through to the mid-Victorian period. By viewing animals as authentic and autonomous historical agents who had a real impact on the world around them, this book concentrates on an under-examined but crucial aspect of the human-animal relationship: interaction. Each chapter provides scholarly debate on the methods and challenges of the study of interspecies interactions, and together they offer an insight into the part that humans and animals have played in shaping each other’s lives, as well as encouraging reflection on the directions that human-animal relations may yet take. Beginning with an exploration of Samuel Pepys’ often emotional relationships with the many animals that he knew, the chapters cover a wide range of domestic, working, and wild animals and include case studies on carnival animals, cattle, dogs, horses, apes, snakes, sharks, and invertebrates. These case studies of human-animal interactions are further brought to life through visual representation, by the inclusion of over 20 images within the book. From ‘sleeve cats’ to lion fights, Interspecies Interactions encompasses a broad spectrum of relationships between humans and animals. Covering topics such as use, emotion, cognition, empire, status, and performance across several centuries and continents, it is essential reading for all students and scholars of historical animal studies.

Encyclopedia of Literature and Science

Encyclopedia of Literature and Science PDF Author: Pamela Gossin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313011060
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 600

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Book Description
Science and literature have always been strange bedfellows. Like puzzle pieces, they fit because they're different. Some of the greatest works of world literature have been inspired by the marvels of the scientific world. Scientists have written works of the imagination. Even formal scientific writings have been known to employ rhetoric. There is a tendency to think of literature—and the humanities in general—as having little to do with science. Yet scholars have conducted fruitful studies of the history and philosophy of science. With the rise of technology, scholars have also applied scientific analysis to the study of literature and the creative process. The intersection of scientific and humanistic inquiry is finally being mapped. This volume includes more than 650 A-Z entries on topics and themes in science and literature, significant writers, key scientists, seminal works, and important theories and methodologies. This reference defines the rapidly emerging interdisciplinary field of literature and science. An introductory essay traces the history of the field, its growing reputation, and the current state of research. Broad in scope, the volume covers world literature from its beginnings to the present day and illuminates the role of science in literature and literary studies. A wide range of experts contributed entries to this volume, each of which concludes with a brief bibliography. The entire volume closes with a list of works for further reading.

Masterminding Nature

Masterminding Nature PDF Author: Margaret Derry
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1442619317
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
In Masterminding Nature, Margaret Derry examines the evolution of modern animal breeding from the invention of improved breeding methodologies in eighteenth-century England to the application of molecular genetics in the 1980s and 1990s. A clear and concise introduction to the science and practice of artificial selection, Derry’s book puts the history of breeding in its scientific, commercial, and social context. Masterminding Nature explains why animal breeders continued to use eighteenth-century techniques well into the twentieth century, why the chicken industry was the first to use genetics in its breeding programs, and why it was the dairy cattle industry that embraced quantitative genetics and artificial insemination in the 1970s, as well as answering many other questions. Following the story right up to the present, the book concludes with an insightful analysis of today’s complex relationships between biology, industry, and ethics.

Headhunting and Colonialism

Headhunting and Colonialism PDF Author: R. Roque
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230251331
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
An exploration of headhunting and the collection of heads for European museums in the context of colonial wars, from the 1870s to the 1930s. The book offers a new understanding of the mutually dependent interaction between indigenous peoples and colonial powers, and how collected remains became regarded as objects of wider significance.