J. Archibald
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231164122
- eISBN:
- 9780231537667
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231164122.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
This book explores the rich history of visual metaphors that have been used to picture biological order and looks at the influence of these metaphors on the perception people have of their place in ...
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This book explores the rich history of visual metaphors that have been used to picture biological order and looks at the influence of these metaphors on the perception people have of their place in nature. It begins with the ancient use of ladders to show biological order and moves to the Romans' use of trees to represent seasonal life cycles and genealogies. It then explains how the early Christian Church appropriated trees to represent biblical genealogies and how, in the late eighteenth century, the tree was reclaimed to visualize relationships in the natural world. It shows how Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) exorcised the exclusively creationist view of the “tree of life,” and explains how his ideas sparked an explosion of tree metaphors, mostly coined by his younger acolytes in Europe. The book also covers the mid-twentieth century and shows how Darwin's ideas helped precipitate another and even greater explosion of tree building, which was also driven by the birth of powerful computers and the emergence of molecular technology. Throughout, this study shows how the evolution of “tree of life” iconography has been entwined with our changing perception of the world and of ourselves.Less
This book explores the rich history of visual metaphors that have been used to picture biological order and looks at the influence of these metaphors on the perception people have of their place in nature. It begins with the ancient use of ladders to show biological order and moves to the Romans' use of trees to represent seasonal life cycles and genealogies. It then explains how the early Christian Church appropriated trees to represent biblical genealogies and how, in the late eighteenth century, the tree was reclaimed to visualize relationships in the natural world. It shows how Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) exorcised the exclusively creationist view of the “tree of life,” and explains how his ideas sparked an explosion of tree metaphors, mostly coined by his younger acolytes in Europe. The book also covers the mid-twentieth century and shows how Darwin's ideas helped precipitate another and even greater explosion of tree building, which was also driven by the birth of powerful computers and the emergence of molecular technology. Throughout, this study shows how the evolution of “tree of life” iconography has been entwined with our changing perception of the world and of ourselves.
