scholarly journals Java Man and the Politics of Natural History

2021 ◽  
Vol 177 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 290-311
Author(s):  
Caroline Drieënhuizen ◽  
Fenneke Sysling
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Geological Information

Abstract Natural history museums have long escaped postcolonial or decolonial scrutiny; their specimens were and are usually presented as part of the natural world, containing only biological or geological information. However, their collections, like those of other museums, are rooted in colonial practices and thinking. In this article, we sketch a political and decolonial biography of ‘Java Man’, the fossilized remains of a Homo erectus specimen, housed in Naturalis, the Natural History Museum, in the Netherlands. We describe the context of Dutch colonialism and the role of indigenous knowledge and activity in the discovery of Java Man. We also follow Java Man to the Netherlands, where it became a contested specimen and part of a discussion about repatriation. This article argues that the fossils of Java Man and their meanings are products of ‘creolized’ knowledge systems produced by Empire and sites of competing national and disciplinary histories and identities.

scholarly journals DESCRIBING THE EDUCATIONAL ROLE OF NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS: AN ANALYSIS TOOL FOR PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE TEACHERS

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eirini Gkouskou ◽  
Dimitrios Koliopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Educational Role

This study presents a tool for description and potential analysis of the educational role of the Science and Technology museum. This tool has been constructed from the point of view of formal education and it is proposed as a framework for the approach of the science/technology museum from the teachers and education administrators. More specifically, the tool is, at first, described in terms of structure, content and functionality and, afterwards, examples are provided for cases of international, national and local natural history museums (Natural History Museum in Paris, Goulandris Natural History Museum in Athens and University of Patras Zoology Museum accordingly). Finally, there is a discussion regarding the suitability of this tool to inform, instruct and train future and in-service teachers in aspects of museum education. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0720/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

scholarly journals The Classic: The natural history museum

1970 ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Albert Eide Parr
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Dead Material

1939: «- if we do recognize that one of the main research missions of a natural history museum lies in the ecological types of investigation, we must obviously also admit the perfect appropriateness of handling live, as well as dead material, in the museum to the extent that the observations on the living individuals may tend to confirm or to explain the conclusions arrived at by the study of the preserved samples of natural populations.» 1950: «The side of nature which concerns society most of all is not undisturbed nature, but nature as the environment of man, and that is the field in which the educational efforts of the natural history museums could make their greatest contribution to human thought, welfare, and progress today.» 1980: «- it seems clear that museums, at least in the larger cities, may be more important as independently explorable additions to the environment itself than in the simple role of didactic interpreters of experiences gained from other sources.» 

scholarly journals NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS

2021 ◽  
pp. 24-28
Author(s):  
Dimítri De Araújo Costa ◽  
Nuno Gomes ◽  
Harold Cantallo ◽  
Carlos Antunes
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Scientific Culture ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
Type Specimens ◽  
Local Fauna ◽  
History Museums ◽  
The World ◽  
Object Of Study

Society in general is distant from scientific culture, it is required to bring scientific knowledge closer to the population. In this context, an effective and attractive way for scientific dissemination is the establishment of natural history museums, which are institutions of knowledge, displaying the past. Natural history museums have the natural world as their object of study; and their collections may contain the most diverse types of materials (local and/or from various parts of the world), such as zoological, botanical, geological, archaeological, among others. Scientific collections are the largest and most important source of authoritative biodiversity data, contributing to studies of biodiversity composition, evolutionary (morphological and genetic), biogeographical, phenological, as well as geological. The materials present in these collections may serve for temporal comparison, being useful to produce predictive models. Likewise, they have a fundamental role in safeguarding type specimens, i.e. the first organisms identified to describe and name a new species. In addition, there is the component available to visitors in general, in order to raise public awareness on the preservation of the local fauna and flora and of other places in the world. In this way, the museums serve both the academic-scientific public and visitors who come to these sites for recreational purposes. It is intended to promote, in Vila Nova de Cerveira, the Natural History Museum of the Iberian Peninsula - NatMIP (“Museu de História Natural da Península Ibérica”), which intends to collect materials for scientific purposes, mainly Iberian.

Juan Cristóbal Gundlach's contributions to the knowledge of Puerto Rican birds and his influence on the development of natural history in Puerto Rico

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Wiley ◽  
Sylke Frahnert ◽  
Rafaela Aguilera Román ◽  
Pascal Eckhoff
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
History Museums ◽  
German Naturalist

The German naturalist, Juan Cristóbal Gundlach (1810–1896), resided in Cuba for the last 57 years of his life, except for two expeditions to Puerto Rico in 1873 and 1875–1876, when he explored the southwestern, western, and northeastern regions. Gundlach made representative collections of the island's fauna, which formed the nucleus of the first natural history museum in Puerto Rico. He substantially increased the number of species known from the island, and was the first naturalist to make meticulous observations and produce detailed reports of the island's natural history. Gundlach greatly influenced other naturalists in the island, so that a period of concerted advancement in knowledge of natural history occurred in the 1870s. That development coincided with the establishment of the first higher education institutions in the island, including the first natural history museum. The natural history museums eventually closed, and only a few of their specimens were passed to other institutions, including foreign museums. None of Gundlach's and few of his contemporaries’ specimens have survived in Puerto Rico.

On the Species of Philonthus Stephens (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae: Staphylinini: Philonthina) in the Collections of Romanian Natural History Museums

2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-276
Author(s):  
Melania Stan
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Alien Species ◽  
New Record ◽  
Palaearctic Region ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Distribution Maps ◽  
History Museums ◽  
History Of

Abstract 57 species of the genus Philonthus were identified in the collections of four museums of Romania: Brukenthal National Museum, “Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History, Museum of Natural History of Iaşi and Museum of Oltenia, Craiova. Philonthus wuesthoffi Bernhauer, an alien species from East Palaearctic Region, is a new record for the Romanian fauna. Except for Philonthus pyrenaeus Kiesenwetter, the species treated here are in the Romanian fauna and presented with their distribution maps. An identification key for Romanian Philonthus species found in the studied collections is also provided.

scholarly journals Museum specimens of terrestrial vertebrates are sensitive indicators of environmental change in the Anthropocene

2018 ◽  
Vol 374 (1763) ◽  
pp. 20170387 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Jonathan Schmitt ◽  
Joseph A. Cook ◽  
Kelly R. Zamudio ◽  
Scott V. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Museum Specimens ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Biodiversity Science ◽  
The Impact

Natural history museums and the specimen collections they curate are vital scientific infrastructure, a fact as true today as it was when biologists began collecting and preserving specimens over 200 years ago. The importance of museum specimens in studies of taxonomy, systematics, ecology and evolutionary biology is evidenced by a rich and abundant literature, yet creative and novel uses of specimens are constantly broadening the impact of natural history collections on biodiversity science and global sustainability. Excellent examples of the critical importance of specimens come from their use in documenting the consequences of environmental change, which is particularly relevant considering the alarming rate at which we now modify our planet in the Anthropocene. In this review, we highlight the important role of bird, mammal and amphibian specimens in documenting the Anthropocene and provide examples that underscore the need for continued collection of museum specimens. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene’.

scholarly journals Towards writing the encyclopaedia of life: an introduction to DNA barcoding

2005 ◽  
Vol 360 (1462) ◽  
pp. 1805-1811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Savolainen ◽  
Robyn S Cowan ◽  
Alfried P Vogler ◽  
George K Roderick ◽  
Richard Lane
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Dna Barcoding ◽  
Species Identification ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Diagnostic Technique ◽  
Scientific Conference ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Biodiversity Inventories

An international consortium of major natural history museums, herbaria and other organizations has launched an ambitious project, the ‘Barcode of Life Initiative’, to promote a process enabling the rapid and inexpensive identification of the estimated 10 million species on Earth. DNA barcoding is a diagnostic technique in which short DNA sequence(s) can be used for species identification. The first international scientific conference on Barcoding of Life was held at the Natural History Museum in London in February 2005, and here we review the scientific challenges discussed during this conference and in previous publications. Although still controversial, the scientific benefits of DNA barcoding include: (i) enabling species identification, including any life stage or fragment, (ii) facilitating species discoveries based on cluster analyses of gene sequences (e.g. cox1 = CO1 , in animals), (iii) promoting development of handheld DNA sequencing technology that can be applied in the field for biodiversity inventories and (iv) providing insight into the diversity of life.

The Case of a Rudderfish Highlights the Role of Natural History Museums as Sentinels of Bio-invasions

Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4254 (3) ◽  
pp. 382 ◽  
Author(s):  
SABRINA LO BRUTTO
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
Marine Protected Area ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Western Sicily ◽  
Kyphosus Vaigiensis ◽  
The Mediterranean

In September 2013 fishermen captured a rudderfish—Kyphosus vaigiensis—off Favignana Island, one of the islands of the Egadi Islands Marine Protected Area (MPA) in western Sicily (Mannino et al., 2015). This species is rarely sampled in the Mediterranean Sea. 

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