Anthropology and Science: Epistemologies in Practice

by Jeanette Edwards (Editor), Penny Harvey (Editor), Peter Wade (Editor)

Overview

What does it mean to know something - scientifically, anthropologically, socially? What is the relationship between different forms of knowledge and ways of knowing? How is knowledge mobilised in society and to what ends? Drawing on ethnographic examples from across the world, and from the virtual and global 'places' created by new information technologies, Anthropology and Science presents examples of living and dynamic epistemologies and practices, and of how scientific ways of knowing operate in the world. Authors address the nature of both scientific and experiential knowledge, and look at competing and alternative ideas about what it means to be human. The essays analyze the politics and ethics of positioning 'science', 'culture' or 'society' as authoritative. They explore how certain modes of knowing are made authoritative and command allegiance (or not), and look at scientific and other rationalities - whether these challenge or are compatible with science.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845205003
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/01/2008
Series:	ASA Monographs , #43
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Jeanette Edwards is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester. Penny Harvey is Professor of Social Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester. Peter Wade is Professor of Social Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Epistemologies in Practice. Jeanette Edwards, Penny Harvey Harvey and Peter Wade (all University of Manchester) 2. Astrophysics, Anthropology and Other Imperial Pursuits. Simon Schaffer (University of Cambridge) 3. Industry Going Public: Rethinking Knowledge and Administration. Alberto Corsín-Jiménez (University of Manchester) 4. Rationality and Contingency: Rhetoric, Practice and Legitimation in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Catherine Alexander (Goldsmiths College, University of London) 5. Information Society Finnish-Style, or an Anthropological View of the Modern. Eeva Berglund (Independent researcher) 6. Nga rakau a te pakeha: Reconsidering Maori Anthropology. Amiria Henare (University of Cambridge) 7. The Second Nuclear Age. Hugh Gusterson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 8. Genealogical Hybridities: The Making and Unmaking of Blood Relatives and Predictive Knowledge in Breast Cancer Genetics. Sahra Gibbon (University College London) 9. Where Do We Find Our Monsters? Debbora Battaglia (Mount Holyoake College) 10. Echolocation in Bolivip. Tony Crook (University of St Andrews) 11. Being Human in a Dualistically-Conceived Embodied World: Descartes' Dualism and Sakais' Universalist Concepts of (Altered) Consciousness, Inner-Knowledge and Self. Nathan Porath (University of Aberdeen)