Retouching the Past with Living Things

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lijing Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Anatomy ◽  
Indigenous Species ◽  
Republican China ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Confucian Morality ◽  
Museum Display ◽  
Scientific Life

Chinese scientists working during the early twentieth century are often understood as radical modernizers. A close examination of research practices in biology at the time, however, complicates such a view. Influential biologists in Nanjing examined in this paper appropriated traditional styles, concerns, and knowledge as crucial constituents in conducting and communicating biological subjects, such as plant taxonomy, comparative anatomy, and goldfish evolution. This paper shows that the prioritized study of those species collected within China was crucial in sustaining traditional styles and knowledge essential to modern biology. As biologists reinterpreted classics, poems, Confucian morality, and historical texts, incorporating them into a scientific life, they changed what it meant to be traditional and scientifically modern at the same time. Particularly, these trends shaped a predominant focus on indigenous species and taxonomic science over experimentation in Nanjing, forging a direction that ran counter to an experimental turn in biology in the wider world. Emphasis on the importance of indigenous species for science, however, added to a full-blown scientific nationalism during the Nanjing Decade (1928–1937), when territorial and economic sovereignty became major concerns for the Guomindang government. With expanding research programs and communities, biologists increasingly presented species within China as potent symbols for national sovereignty in classrooms, at customs, and for museum display. By showing ways of appropriating indigenous species in these scientific and cultural activities, this paper exposes intricate associations between biological things and scientific nationalism in Republican China.

The Invention of Papal History

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Reformation ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Standards ◽  
Commissioned Works ◽  
The One ◽  
Late Renaissance ◽  
The Church

How was the history of post-classical Rome and of the Church written in the Catholic Reformation? Historical texts composed in Rome at this time have been considered secondary to the city’s significance for the history of art. The Invention of Papal History corrects this distorting emphasis and shows how history-writing became part of a comprehensive formation of the image and self-perception of the papacy. By presenting and fully contextualizing the path-breaking works of the Augustinian historian Onofrio Panvinio (1530–68), this book shows what type of historical research was possible in the late Renaissance and the Catholic Reformation. Historiography in this period by no means consisted entirely of commissioned works written for patrons; rather, a creative interplay existed between, on the one hand, the endeavours of authors to explore the past and, on the other hand, the constraints of patronage and ideology placed on them. This book sheds new light on the changing priorities, mentalities, and cultural standards that flourished in the transition from the Renaissance to the Catholic Reformation.

What is a Classic in History?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Jaume Aurell
Keyword(s):  
Literary Texts ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Historical Criticism ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Science And Art ◽  
Historical Text ◽  
Historical Condition ◽  
Historical Writings ◽  
Narrative Language

Abstract What is the classic in history? What is a classic in historical writing? Very few historians and critics have addressed these questions, and when they have done so, it has been only in a cursory manner. These are queries that require some explanation regarding historical texts because of their peculiar ambivalence between science and art, content and form, sources and imagination, scientific and narrative language. Based on some examples of the Western historiographical tradition, I discuss in this article to what extent historians should engage the concept of the classic – as has been done for literary texts. If one assumes that the historical text is not only a referential account but also a narrative analogous to literary texts, then the concept of the classic becomes one of the keys for understanding the historical text – and may improve our understanding not only of historiography, but of history itself. I will argue in this article that it is possible to identify a category of the classic text in some historical writings, precisely because of the literarity they possess without losing their specific historical condition. Because of their narrative condition, historical texts share some of the features assigned to literary texts – that is, endurance, timelessness, universal meaningfulness, resistance to historical criticism, susceptibility to multiple interpretations, and ability to function as models. Yet, since historical texts do not construct imaginary worlds but reflect external realities, they also have to achieve some specific features according to this referential content – that is, surplus of meaning, historical use of metaphors, effect of contemporaneity without damaging the pastness of the past, and a certain appropriation of literariness. Without seeking to be normative or systematic, this article focuses on some specific features of the historical classic, offering a series of reflections to open rather than try to close a debate on this complex topic.

Modern Museum and Paramuseum: Existential Alienation and Actualization

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-2) ◽  
pp. 410-425
Author(s):  
Denis Ignatyev ◽  
◽  
Anastasia Nikiforova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
The Past ◽  
Synergistic Approach ◽  
Historical Objects ◽  
First Time ◽  
Scientific Life ◽  
Northwestern Russia

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of alienation of culture in a modern museum and the processes of actualization of objects and phenomena of history in the space of the paramuseum. In the center of the author’s attention is the theme of creating the illusion of existential comfort. It explores the contradiction between the need for museification of culture in order for a modern person to be able to appeal to it when building one’s own identity, and the constant desire to place the culture of the past on a safe reservation. The issue of aestheticization of cultural objects in the museum space and the role of a museum in interpreting, preserving and distorting their meaning is raised. The museum, created as a repository of antiquities, a collection of masterpieces, today has become the most sensitive system that responds to changes in the life of culture and society. An axiological analysis of modern museums shows their growing popularity as an element of the entertainment industry, while their aesthetic, analytical, and intellectual role is becoming obscure. Respect for the museum as a keeper of cultural memory, for the focus of scientific life is disappearing. Instead, a simplified “attraction museum” and paramuseum is coming to the fore, creating endless games with historical objects, reconstructions, visitors and interpretations of the events of history and culture. The authors of the article are among the first to turn to the concept of “paramuseum” and give it a comprehensive assessment. For the first time, a scientific classification of paramuseums (on the example of paramuseums of northwestern Russia) is proposed. Their main features and characteristics are identified. A synergistic approach to the processes of actualization and alienation of cultural objects in the museum environment made it possible to include the viewer, the recipient, as the third, necessary component of this system. This made it possible to conclude that museum values are alienated or updated not by themselves, but only in relation to the “person watching.” Thus, modern museums and paramuseums are a form of value-based self-consciousness of society, demonstrating the total stratification of post-culture society, its fragmentation into value clusters that can represent culture as a whole only in the process of analytical consciousness, but not in the collection of subject series.

Real and Literary Landscapes in Ancient Egypt

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Bunbury ◽  
David Jeffreys
Keyword(s):  
Satellite Images ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Human Intervention ◽  
Changing Environment ◽  
Constant Flux ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Literary Landscapes ◽  
Borehole Logs ◽  
Ancient Texts

During the past thirty years the Survey of Memphis and others have acquired more than two hundred borehole logs from the Capital Zone of Egypt. Combining these boreholes with maps and satellite images, we show that, during the past five thousand years, the geography of the Nile has been in constant flux with mean rates of migration around 2 m/y and one of its channels becoming extinct, by nature or through human intervention. Re-visiting ancient texts in the light of this changing environment, we show that the literary settings of both fictional and historical texts were real landscapes known to the authors. Hence we infer that ancient descriptions of landscape can be interpreted in a more literal way than before and that the authors were not as prone to writing of a metaphorical realm as was previously thought.

scholarly journals The contribution of voltage clamp fluorometry to the understanding of channel and transporter mechanisms

2019 ◽  
Vol 151 (10) ◽  
pp. 1163-1172 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Cowgill ◽  
Baron Chanda
Keyword(s):  
Voltage Clamp ◽  
Conformational Changes ◽  
Physiological State ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mechanistic Insight ◽  
Atomistic Models ◽  
Multiple Conformations ◽  
And Function

Key advances in single particle cryo-EM methods in the past decade have ushered in a resolution revolution in modern biology. The structures of many ion channels and transporters that were previously recalcitrant to crystallography have now been solved. Yet, despite having atomistic models of many complexes, some in multiple conformations, it has been challenging to glean mechanistic insight from these structures. To some extent this reflects our inability to unambiguously assign a given structure to a particular physiological state. One approach that may allow us to bridge this gap between structure and function is voltage clamp fluorometry (VCF). Using this technique, dynamic conformational changes can be measured while simultaneously monitoring the functional state of the channel or transporter. Many of the important papers that have used VCF to probe the gating mechanisms of channels and transporters have been published in the Journal of General Physiology. In this review, we provide an overview of the development of VCF and discuss some of the key problems that have been addressed using this approach. We end with a brief discussion of the outlook for this technique in the era of high-resolution structures.

scholarly journals Sayyids and Social Stratification of Muslims in Colonial India: Genealogy and Narration of the Past in Amroha

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 467-487
Author(s):  
SOHEB NIAZI
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
North India ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Early Islam ◽  
History Of ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Asian Context

AbstractWhile Islamic scriptures like the Quran and Hadith are often quoted to negate the existence of social stratification among Muslims, authors of genealogical texts rely on the very same scriptures to foreground and legitimise discussions on descent and lineage. In the South Asian context, several conceptions of hierarchy as practised by Muslims in north India evolved over the course of colonial rule and were deployed interchangeably by Sayyids. These were based on notions of race, ethnicity, respectability and nobility, and occupational distinctions as well as narratives that referred to the history of early Islam. This article contributes to the study of social stratification among South Asian Muslims by exploring the evolution of Urdu tarikh (historical texts) produced by Sayyid men in the qasbah of Amroha in the Rohilkhand region of the United Provinces during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Sayyid authors narrated the past through the medium of nasab (genealogy). While their texts place emphasis on lineage and descent to legitimise a superior social status for Sayyids, they also shed light on the changing social and material context of the local qasbah politics with the discourse on genealogy evolving into a form that engaged with social contestations.

scholarly journals [Report of the Secretary and Treasurer of the Royal Society]

1887 ◽  
Vol 41 (246-250) ◽  
pp. 372-399
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Comparative Anatomy ◽  
Balance Sheet ◽  
Substantial Improvement ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Considerable Excess ◽  
Circle Of Friends ◽  
Sound Judgment

For many years it has been my duty as senior Secretary to read at each Anniversary the death-roll of the year.. The names this year are perhaps slightly fewer than usual, but many recall to us faces once familiar that we shall never see here again. Earliest among them comes Sir Frederick Evans, whose death took place only very shortly after our last Anniversary. In the course of the preceding summer he crossed the Atlantic to take part in that International Conference which assembled at Washington, to deliberate among other things on the choice of a common prime meridian for all civilised nations. On his return he was looking ill, and the illness increased until it carried him away. Yet even through his illness he kept on working at science, at a task he had undertaken, and which was almost completed when he died. To this I shall have occasion to refer again. In Mr. Busk we have lost one whose detailed knowledge of certain branches of natural history and comparative anatomy was almost unrivalled. He took an active part in the scientific business of the Society, and repeatedly served on our Council, and both then and subsequently gave us the benefit of his extensive knowledge and sound judgment in the important but laborious task of reporting on papers. In Lord Cardwell we have lost a statesman whose political duties did not prevent him from coming among us and serving on our Council. The public services and singular honesty and straightforwardness of Mr. Forster are appreciated by the nation at large. Quite recently, at no advanced age, we have lost Professor Guthrie, the occupant of a chair which a great many years ago I held for a time; a man whose genial character drew around him a close circle of friends. Still more recently we have lost the Earl of Enniskillen, whose fine palæontological collections are well known to geologists. Only the other day one passed away whom we seldom missed at our anniversary meeting, and who was frequently with us on other occasions: I allude to General Boileau, whose philanthropic labours will not soon be forgotten, and may, I trust, be recognised in a much needed form. The Fellows will have noticed with satisfaction a very considerable excess of income over expenditure in the balance sheet for the year. At first sight it might be supposed that as the ‘Transactions’ come out at irregular intervals there might have been fewer parts published than usual; but it will be found on examination that the past year has borne its proper share of printing expenses. The excess is really due to a substantial improvement in the. Society’s property, under the careful and judicious management of our Treasurer.

Evolution and Man

Antiquity ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 31 (124) ◽  
pp. 188-198
Author(s):  
Ronald Singer
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Comparative Anatomy ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Morphological Studies ◽  
Technical Advances ◽  
Theories Of Evolution ◽  
Post War ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
The 19Th Century

The whole of modern biology has been called ‘ a commentary on the Origin of Species ’ (Charles Singer, 1949). In a sense this is true. Following the endeavours to trace the natural histories of the various living organisms, attempts are still in progress to determine the modes, patterns and directive forces of evolution. The end of the 19th and the first quarter of the 20th centuries were characterized by morphological studies in comparative anatomy, the rise of geology and the birth of genetics. The second quarter of this century has witnessed a phenomenal expansion in technical advances leading to critical appraisals of previous concepts and to maturation of new, revolutionary theories based upon seemingly disconnected disciplines-experimental embryology, genetics, physkal anthropology, palaeontology and geology. One of the unacclaimed causes of the correlation of knowledge is the post-war mastery of air travel. The spectacular rise of the ' basic ' biological sciences due to emergent industrial and atomic competitive needs in an era of socio-economic enlightenment is another factor giving rise to the pursuit of such knowledge. In a general sense this is the end of a Darwinian ' cycle ' ; the favourable socio-political situation of the 19th century formed the ' overture ' to the Darwinian theory. Act One saw the development, championing and triumphs of the intellectual interpretations of ' Darwinists '. In Act Two the weaknesses and the vital issues of the application of the theory to various living forms and particularly to Homo sapims were exposed, mainly through the clashes of ' neo-Darwinists ' and ' neo-Lamarckists '. This led to Act Three in which the various sciences (and especially genetics), competing to illustrate and develop alternative theories of evolution, blossomed out, particularly in their search for the mechanisms of the evolutionary processes. In the final scene of this Act the socio-political situation once again formed an important background as the diverse disciplines combine tq unify concepts, and, in fact, to prove evolution.

Impacts of Fish Introductions in Tropical Asia and America

1991 ◽  
Vol 48 (S1) ◽  
pp. 24-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. Fernando
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Species ◽  
Severe Damage ◽  
Tropical Asia ◽  
The Past ◽  
Fish Introductions ◽  
Living Fossils ◽  
Lakes And Reservoirs ◽  
Reservoir Construction ◽  
Indigenous Fishes

Biotas are constantly being reshaped by invasions. Introduction is now an added route to invaders. Impacts must be viewed against the background of massive changes in type, extent and quality of freshwater habits globally and in that freshwater fishes are almost living fossils. Also, old lakes and lacustrine fishes are highly restricted geographically. Lakes are young while rivers are old. Riverine, marsh and pond fishes are not well adapted to lacustrine conditions now widespread due to reservoir construction. Some Clupeidae and Cichlidae are lacustrine-adapted and highly productive. They have therefore made major impacts on fish yields in lakes and reservoirs. In tropical Asia and America, there have been a series of overlapping waves offish introductions during the past 150 years, culminating tin the tilapias from Africa. These fishes now dominate capture and culture fisheries in many countries. Fish introductions are a fait accompli and will continue. They must be realistically assessed and carefully monitored. Contrary to some predictions, introductions have not caused severe damage to indigenous species except when piscivores were used. Yields of indigenous fishes have apparently been enhanced in some instances. Parasites pose a serious threat and only an effective quarantine will ensure their exclusion.

Address of the President Lord Adrian, O.M., at the Anniversary Meeting, 30 November 1955

1956 ◽  
Vol 144 (917) ◽  
pp. 431-440
Keyword(s):  
Design Of Experiments ◽  
Inductive Inference ◽  
Small Samples ◽  
Quantitative Biology ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Past ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Biological Insight ◽  
Mathematical Skill

The Copley Medal is awarded to Sir Ronald Fisher, F. R. S. The rise of quantitative biology, which has been so noteworthy a feature of this century and especially of the past thirty years or so, has been due above all to the work of R. A. Fisher. The variability of living things posed problems and raised difficulties in the interpretation of experimental and observational data which made necessary something beyond the methods of the physical sciences. They required in fact a new approach to inductive inference, and one which would provide means of drawing conclusions of assessable reliability from variable material often available only in small samples. It is to Fisher’s combination of mathematical skill and biological insight that we owe the developments, both theoretical and practical, which have done so much towards solving this problem and so making biologists of virtually every kind quantitative in their experiments, their analysis, and, most important of all, their thought. Faced with the agronomical problems of Rothamsted, whose staff he joined in 1919, Fisher began the remarkable series of statistical investigations which gave us the techniques described in Statistical methods , the tabular matter of Statistical tables (published with F. Yates) for facilitating their use, and the philosophy of Design of experiments by which they may be understood, appreciated and extended. The outcome has not merely stood the test of time in those branches of biology with which he was immediately concerned, but has had an ever-widening influence which now extends even beyond the borders of biology itself. And in building the new biometry, Fisher has given especially to the younger biologists a confidence and quantitative outlook whose full effects we have still to see.

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