Anthropology and Science Epistemologies in Practice

by Edwards, Jeanette; Harvey, Penny; Wade, Peter

• ISBN13: 9781845204990
• ISBN10: 1845204999
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-04-15
• Publisher: Berg Pub Ltd

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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

Introduction : epistemologies in practice
Astrophysics, anthropology and other imperial pursuits	p. 19
Industry going public : rethinking knowledge and administration	p. 39
Rationality and contingency : rhetoric, practice and legitimation in Almaty, Kazakhstan	p. 58
Information society Finnish-style, or an anthropological view of the modern	p. 75
Nga Rakau a te Pakeha : reconsidering Maori anthropology	p. 93
The second nuclear age	p. 114
Genealogical hybridities : the making and unmaking of blood relatives and predictive knowledge in breast cancer genetics	p. 133
Where do we find our monsters?	p. 153
Echolocation in Bolivip	p. 170
Being human in a dualistically-conceived embodied world : Descartes' dualism and Sakais' universalist concepts of (altered) consciousness, inner-knowledge and self	p. 187
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