Naturalist Histories

Naturalist Histories PDF Author: Jamon Alex Halvaksz
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824888790
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
From early explorers to contemporary scientists, naturalists have examined island flora and fauna of Oceania, discovering new species, carefully documenting the lives of animals, and creating work central to the image of Oceania. These “discoveries” and exploratory moves have had profound local and global impacts. Often, however, local knowledge and communities are silent in the ethologies and histories that naturalists produce. This volume analyzes the ways that Indigenous and non-Indigenous naturalists have made island natures visible to a wider audience, their relationship with the communities where they work, as well as the unique natures that they explore and help make. In staking out an area of naturalist histories, each contributor addresses the relationship between naturalists and Oceanic communities, how these histories shaped past and present place and practices, the influence on conservations and development projects, and the relationship between scientific and indigenous knowledge. The essays span across colonial and postcolonial frames, tracing shifts in biological practice from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century focus on taxonomy and discovery to the twentieth-century disciplinary restructurings and new collecting strategies, and contemporary concerns with biodiversity loss, conservation, and knowledge formation. The production of scientific knowledge is typically seen in ethnographic accounts as oppositional, contrasting Indigenous and western, local and global, objective and subjective. Such dichotomous views reinforce differences and further exaggerate inequities in the production of knowledge. More dangerously, value distinctions become embedded in discussions of Indigenous identity, rights, and sovereignty. Contributors acknowledge that these dichotomous narratives have dominated the approach of the scientific community while informing how social scientists have understood the contributions of Pacific communities. The essays offer a nuanced gradient as historical narratives of scientific investigation, in dialogue with local histories, and reveal greater levels of participation in the creation of knowledge. The volume highlights how power infuses the scientific endeavor and offers a distinct and diverse view of knowledge production in Oceania. Combining senior and emerging international scholars, the collection will be of interest to researchers in the social sciences, history, as well as biology and allied fields.

Naturalist Histories

Naturalist Histories PDF Author: Jamon Alex Halvaksz
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824888790
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Get Book Here

Book Description
From early explorers to contemporary scientists, naturalists have examined island flora and fauna of Oceania, discovering new species, carefully documenting the lives of animals, and creating work central to the image of Oceania. These “discoveries” and exploratory moves have had profound local and global impacts. Often, however, local knowledge and communities are silent in the ethologies and histories that naturalists produce. This volume analyzes the ways that Indigenous and non-Indigenous naturalists have made island natures visible to a wider audience, their relationship with the communities where they work, as well as the unique natures that they explore and help make. In staking out an area of naturalist histories, each contributor addresses the relationship between naturalists and Oceanic communities, how these histories shaped past and present place and practices, the influence on conservations and development projects, and the relationship between scientific and indigenous knowledge. The essays span across colonial and postcolonial frames, tracing shifts in biological practice from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century focus on taxonomy and discovery to the twentieth-century disciplinary restructurings and new collecting strategies, and contemporary concerns with biodiversity loss, conservation, and knowledge formation. The production of scientific knowledge is typically seen in ethnographic accounts as oppositional, contrasting Indigenous and western, local and global, objective and subjective. Such dichotomous views reinforce differences and further exaggerate inequities in the production of knowledge. More dangerously, value distinctions become embedded in discussions of Indigenous identity, rights, and sovereignty. Contributors acknowledge that these dichotomous narratives have dominated the approach of the scientific community while informing how social scientists have understood the contributions of Pacific communities. The essays offer a nuanced gradient as historical narratives of scientific investigation, in dialogue with local histories, and reveal greater levels of participation in the creation of knowledge. The volume highlights how power infuses the scientific endeavor and offers a distinct and diverse view of knowledge production in Oceania. Combining senior and emerging international scholars, the collection will be of interest to researchers in the social sciences, history, as well as biology and allied fields.

Naturalist

Naturalist PDF Author: Edward O. Wilson
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 9781597260886
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
Edward O. Wilson -- University Professor at Harvard, winner of two Pulitzer prizes, eloquent champion of biodiversity -- is arguably one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. His career represents both a blueprint and a challenge to those who seek to explore the frontiers of scientific understanding. Yet, until now, little has been told of his life and of the important events that have shaped his thought.In Naturalist, Wilson describes for the first time both his growth as a scientist and the evolution of the science he has helped define. He traces the trajectory of his life -- from a childhood spent exploring the Gulf Coast of Alabama and Florida to life as a tenured professor at Harvard -- detailing how his youthful fascination with nature blossomed into a lifelong calling. He recounts with drama and wit the adventures of his days as a student at the University of Alabama and his four decades at Harvard University, where he has achieved renown as both teacher and researcher.As the narrative of Wilson's life unfolds, the reader is treated to an inside look at the origin and development of ideas that guide today's biological research. Theories that are now widely accepted in the scientific world were once untested hypotheses emerging from one mans's broad-gauged studies. Throughout Naturalist, we see Wilson's mind and energies constantly striving to help establish many of the central principles of the field of evolutionary biology.The story of Wilson's life provides fascinating insights into the making of a scientist, and a valuable look at some of the most thought-provoking ideas of our time.

The Essential Naturalist

The Essential Naturalist PDF Author: Michael H. Graham
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226305708
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Book Description
Like nearly every area of scholarly inquiry today, the biological sciences are broken into increasingly narrow fields and subfields, its practitioners divided into ecologists, evolutionary biologists, taxonomists, paleontologists, and much more. But all these splintered pieces have their origins in the larger field of natural history—and in this era where climate change and relentless population growth are irrevocably altering the world around us, perhaps it’s time to step back and take a new, fresh look at the larger picture. The Essential Naturalist offers exactly that: a wide-ranging, eclectic collection of writings from more than eight centuries of observations of the natural world, from Leeuwenhoek to E. O. Wilson, from von Humboldt to Rachel Carson. Featuring commentaries by practicing scientists that offer personal accounts of the importance of the long tradition of natural history writing to their current research, the volume serves simultaneously as an overview of the field’s long history and as an inspirational starting point for new explorations, for trained scientists and amateur enthusiasts alike.

The Book of Naturalists

The Book of Naturalists PDF Author: William Beebe
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691024080
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 524

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Book Description
This anthology covers animals, nature, and the history of biology. Reflecting his infectious enthusiasm for "the best natural history," the editor has excerpts from massive sources and intriguing pieces from lesser known authors. Among the naturalists included are Pliny, Frederick II, Linnaeus, White, Bartram, Waterton, Thoreau, Wallace, Huxley, Faber, Theodore Roosevelt, Digby, Seton, and Klingel. Arranged in chronological order, the small masterpieces here range from Aristotle to Rachel Carson. Each excerpt is introduced by an incisive and sometimes humorous description of its author.

Ecology and Natural History (Collins New Naturalist Library)

Ecology and Natural History (Collins New Naturalist Library) PDF Author: David Wilkinson
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0008293643
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Ecology is the science of ecosystems, of habitats, of our world and its future. In the latest New Naturalist, ecologist David M. Wilkinson explains key ideas of this crucial branch of science, using Britain’s ecosystems to illustrate each point.

The Naturalist

The Naturalist PDF Author: Darrin Lunde
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307464318
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Winner of the inaugural Theodore Roosevelt Association Book Prize A captivating account of how Theodore Roosevelt’s lifelong passion for the natural world set the stage for America’s wildlife conservation movement and determined his legacy as a founding father of today’s museum naturalism. No U.S. president is more popularly associated with nature and wildlife than is Theodore Roosevelt—prodigious hunter, tireless adventurer, and ardent conservationist. We think of him as a larger-than-life original, yet in The Naturalist, Darrin Lunde has firmly situated Roosevelt’s indomitable curiosity about the natural world in the tradition of museum naturalism. As a child, Roosevelt actively modeled himself on the men (including John James Audubon and Spencer F. Baird) who pioneered this key branch of biology by developing a taxonomy of the natural world—basing their work on the experiential study of nature. The impact that these scientists and their trailblazing methods had on Roosevelt shaped not only his audacious personality but his entire career, informing his work as a statesman and ultimately affecting generations of Americans’ relationship to this country’s wilderness. Drawing on Roosevelt’s diaries and travel journals as well as Lunde’s own role as a leading figure in museum naturalism today, The Naturalist reads Roosevelt through the lens of his love for nature. From his teenage collections of birds and small mammals to his time at Harvard and political rise, Roosevelt’s fascination with wildlife and exploration culminated in his triumphant expedition to Africa, a trip which he himself considered to be the apex of his varied life. With narrative verve, Lunde brings his singular experience to bear on our twenty-sixth president’s life and constructs a perceptively researched and insightful history that tracks Roosevelt’s maturation from exuberant boyhood hunter to vital champion of serious scientific inquiry.

Island Naturalist

Island Naturalist PDF Author: Kathie Fiveash
Publisher: Penobscot Books
ISBN: 9780941238182
Category : Natural history
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
A compendium of four years of Island Naturalist columns, published originally in the weekly newspaper Island Ad-Vantages, Stonington, Maine.

Finding Order in Nature

Finding Order in Nature PDF Author: Paul Lawrence Farber
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801863905
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
The importance of naming and categorizing nature has its roots in the biblical Genesis, as does the problematic view of man's domination over it. Farber (history, Oregon State U.) traces the scientific study of the natural world from its 18th century beginnings with Swedish botanist Linnaeus and his French rival Buffon, through Darwin's synthesis, to the modern theory of evolution (1900-50), and concerns over biodiversity by the "naturalist as generalist" exemplified by Wilson. Includes modest b&w illustrations.Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

The Best Read Naturalist

The Best Read Naturalist PDF Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813939520
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Best Read Naturalist illuminates the vital influence that the study of natural history had on the development of Emerson's mature philosophy.

The Naturalist in Britain

The Naturalist in Britain PDF Author: David Elliston Allen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691036328
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
At once a major resource for historians of science and an excellent introduction to natural history for the general reader, David Allen's The Naturalist in Britain established a precedent for investigating natural history as a social phenomenon. Here the author traces the evolution of natural history from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries, from the "herbalizings" of apprentice apothecaries to the establishment of national reserves and international societies to the emergence of natural history as an organized discipline. Along the way he describes the role of scientific ideas, popular fashion, religious motivations, literary influences, the increase of leisure time and disposable income, and the tendency of like-minded persons to form clubs. His comprehensive and entertaining discussion creates a vibrant portrait of a scientific movement inextricably woven into a particular culture.