scholarly journals Aristotle, Buddhist scripture and embryology in ancient Mexico: building inclusion by re-thinking what counts as the history of developmental biology

Development ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 148 (3) ◽  
pp. dev192062
Author(s):  
John B. Wallingford

ABSTRACTIt has not gone unnoticed in recent times that historical writing about science is heavily Eurocentric. A striking example can be found in the history of developmental biology: textbooks and popular science writing frequently trace an intellectual thread from the Greek philosopher Aristotle through 19th century embryology to 20th century genetics. Few in our field are aware of the depth and breadth of early embryological thinking outside of Europe. Here, I provide a series of vignettes highlighting the rich history of embryological thinking in Asia and Latin America. My goal is to provide an entertaining, even provocative, synopsis of this important but under-studied topic. It is my hope that this work will spur others to carry out more thorough investigations, with the ultimate goal of building a more inclusive discipline.

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER J. Bowler

The bulk of this address concerns itself with the extent to which professional scientists were involved in popular science writing in early twentieth-century Britain. Contrary to a widespread assumption, it is argued that a significant proportion of the scientific community engaged in writing the more educational type of popular science. Some high-profile figures acquired enough skill in popular writing to exert considerable influence over the public's perception of science and its significance. The address also shows how publishers actively sought ‘expert’ authors for popular material, but at the same time controlled what was published in accordance with their perception of what would sell. At a more popular level of writing there were many semi-professional authors who, while not active scientists, exploited close contacts with the scientific community. Here there was a strong emphasis on the practical applications of science.The address concludes by suggesting parallels between popular science writing in this period and the present state of popular writing about the history of science.


Author(s):  
E. V. Sitnikova

The article considers the historical and cultural heritage of villages of the former Ketskaya volost, which is currently a part of the Tomsk region. The formation of Ketsky prison and the architecture of large settlements of the former Ketskaya volost are studied. Little is known about the historical and cultural heritage of villages of the Tomsk region and the problems of preserving historical settlements of the country.The aim of this work is to study the formation and development of the village architecture of the former Ketskaya volost, currently included in the Tomsk region.The following scientific methods are used: a critical analysis of the literature, comparative architectural analysis and systems analysis of information, creative synthesis of the findings. The obtained results can be used in preparation of lectures, reports and communication on the history of the Siberian architecture.The scientific novelty is a study of the historical and cultural heritage of large settlements of the former Ketskaya volost, which has not been studied and published before. The methodological and theoretical basis of the study is theoretical works of historians and architects regarding the issue under study as well as the previous  author’s work in the field.It is found that the historical and cultural heritage of the villages of the former Ketskaya volost has a rich history. Old historical buildings, including religious ones are preserved in villages of Togur and Novoilinka. The urban planning of the villages reflects the design and construction principles of the 18th century. The rich natural environment gives this area a special touch. 


Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mieke Vandenbroucke

AbstractThis paper focuses on how different historical stages of socio-economic development in Brussels are played out on the ground over time in one particular inner-city neighbourhood, the Quartier Dansaert. In particular, I document the history of this neighbourhood and how urban change and gentrification have impacted the outlook of multilingualism and the development of multilingual discourses and language hierarchies in its material and semiotic landscape over time. By using the rich history of multilingualism in the Quartier Dansaert as a case-study, I argue in favour of more historically-sensitive and longitudinal approaches to social and, in particular, linguistic change as played out in urban landscape.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Grall ◽  
Emily S. Finn

So-called “naturalistic” stimuli have risen in popularity in cognitive, social, and affective psychology and neuroscience over the last 15 years. However, a critical property of these stimuli is frequently overlooked: Media—like film, television, books, and podcasts—are fundamentally not natural. They are deliberately crafted products meant to elicit particular human thought, emotion, and behavior. Given the rich history of scholarship on media as an art and science, subsuming media stimuli under the term “naturalistic” in psychological and brain sciences is inaccurate and obfuscates the advantages that media stimuli offer because they are artificial. Here, we argue for a more informed approach to adopting media stimuli in naturalistic paradigms. We empirically review how researchers currently describe and justify their choice of stimuli for a given experiment and present strategies to improve rigor in the stimulus selection process. We assert that experiencing media should be considered a task akin to any other experimental task(s), and explain how this shift in perspective will compel more nuanced and generalizable research using these stimuli. Throughout, we offer theoretical and practical knowledge from multidisciplinary media research to raise the standard for the treatment of media stimuli in psychological and neuroscientific research.


Author(s):  
Njoroge Njoroge

In those days it was either live with music or die with noise, and we chose rather desperately to live. —Ralph Ellison Black music has always been a tremendous source of information and inspiration for musicians, dancers, and music lovers. Listening to the music opens new worlds and windows onto the rich history of black music, society, and struggle in the circum-Caribbean, and provides a rich archive of the creative musical genius of the African diaspora. Music always expresses the interrelationships of movement, memory, and history, but this is preeminently true of the music of the African diaspora. This book uses music as both optic and focus, to examine and rethink both the modes of black cultural production and social formations in the African diaspora. The music has always been both an expression of “black” life and part of the philosophy that developed and emerged with that life, “as history and as art” (...


Author(s):  
DIANE E. DAVIS

What constitutes modern Mexico? Is there a clear distinction between the historic and modern Mexico City? And if there are, does this distinctions hold up throughout the twentieth century, when what is apparent is a mix of legacies coexisting overtime? This chapter discusses the semiotics of history and modernity. It discusses the struggle of the Mexico City to find its own image including its struggle to preserve historic buildings amidst the differing political alliances that either promote change or preserve the past. However, past is not a single entity, hence if the preservation of the rich history of Mexico is pursued, the question arises as to what periods of history represented in the city are to be favoured in its future development. In this chapter, the focus is on the paradoxes of the Torre Bicentenario and on the pressures to preserve Mexico’s past, the ways they have been juxtaposed against the plans for its future and how the balance of these views has shifted over time. It determines the key actors and the institutions who have embraced history as opposed to progress, identifies the set of forces that dominated in the city’s twentieth-century history, and assesses the long-term implications of the shifting balance for the social, spatial and built environmental character of the city. The chapter ends with a discussion on the current role played by the cultural and historical authorities in determining the fate of the city.


Author(s):  
Lynn Zastoupil

This essay re-examines the fact that J. S. Mill’s published work registers surprisingly few direct examples of influence from India, despite his lengthy East India Company career. Situating Mill’s contact with South Asia in the rich history of Anglo-Indian intellectual exchange that colonialism engendered, it argues that this missed opportunity to connect is striking because of the confluence of extraordinary motives and opportunity in Mill’s early life. During the 1830s, European intellectual influences and colonial imperatives combined to lead Mill to advocate a form of Einfühlung—sympathetic understanding of others—at the very moment when the visiting Indian reformer Rammohun Roy was being celebrated across Britain by many individuals close to Mill, such as Jeremy Bentham. Yet Mill never met Rammohun and he virtually ignored the celebrated Bengali in his correspondence and published work. This neglect, the chapter argues, is astounding: not only did Mill and Rammohun campaign alike for freedom of the press in the 1820s, but numerous people that Mill knew used Rammohun’s example to argue that social progress depends on such liberties, a view of progress that Mill shared at the time. The essay concludes that Mill’s rejection of this foundational idea of liberty in favour of the famously restrictive one espoused in On Liberty awaits proper investigation, as does the abandonment of Einfühlung in his later publications.


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