Amy M. King
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195161519
- eISBN:
- 9780199787838
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161519.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
Starting from the botanical crazes inspired by Linnaeus in the 18th century, and exploring the variations it spawned — natural history, landscape architecture, polemical battles over botany's ...
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Starting from the botanical crazes inspired by Linnaeus in the 18th century, and exploring the variations it spawned — natural history, landscape architecture, polemical battles over botany's prurience — this book offers a fresh reading of the courtship novel from Jane Austen to George Eliot and Henry James. By reanimating a cultural understanding of botany and sexuality that we have lost, it provides a new and powerful account of the novel's role in scripting sexualized courtship, and illuminates how the novel and popular science together created a cultural figure, the blooming girl, that stood at the center of both fictional and scientific worlds.Less
Starting from the botanical crazes inspired by Linnaeus in the 18th century, and exploring the variations it spawned — natural history, landscape architecture, polemical battles over botany's prurience — this book offers a fresh reading of the courtship novel from Jane Austen to George Eliot and Henry James. By reanimating a cultural understanding of botany and sexuality that we have lost, it provides a new and powerful account of the novel's role in scripting sexualized courtship, and illuminates how the novel and popular science together created a cultural figure, the blooming girl, that stood at the center of both fictional and scientific worlds.
William P. Brown
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730797
- eISBN:
- 9780199777075
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730797.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Theology
Like Job, Psalm 104 celebrates God’s diverse creation. Both Job and the psalm, in fact, share several animals in common, from the lion to Leviathan. The psalmist, however, highlights the botanical as ...
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Like Job, Psalm 104 celebrates God’s diverse creation. Both Job and the psalm, in fact, share several animals in common, from the lion to Leviathan. The psalmist, however, highlights the botanical as well as the biological. In his eyes, the cedars of Lebanon are among creation’s most majestic features. Whereas Job highlights the animals’ range and independence, the psalm emphasizes their respective habitats. Creation is a habitat for biodiversity, not just for humanity. Humanity is merely one species among many species, each seeking its livelihood within its prescribed environment or niche. As in Job, God is the provider and sustainer of life. Science, with its ongoing discovery of species, expands and deepens the psalmist’s awe, as well as underlines the fundamental importance of habitat.Less
Like Job, Psalm 104 celebrates God’s diverse creation. Both Job and the psalm, in fact, share several animals in common, from the lion to Leviathan. The psalmist, however, highlights the botanical as well as the biological. In his eyes, the cedars of Lebanon are among creation’s most majestic features. Whereas Job highlights the animals’ range and independence, the psalm emphasizes their respective habitats. Creation is a habitat for biodiversity, not just for humanity. Humanity is merely one species among many species, each seeking its livelihood within its prescribed environment or niche. As in Job, God is the provider and sustainer of life. Science, with its ongoing discovery of species, expands and deepens the psalmist’s awe, as well as underlines the fundamental importance of habitat.
Denis J. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199207145
- eISBN:
- 9780191708893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199207145.003.0015
- Subject:
- Biology, Plant Sciences and Forestry
The expansion of the British and Dutch mercantile empires from the 17th century was accompanied by a renewal of the old Babylonian concept of Imperial Botany, now made all the more effective by a new ...
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The expansion of the British and Dutch mercantile empires from the 17th century was accompanied by a renewal of the old Babylonian concept of Imperial Botany, now made all the more effective by a new marriage of private commerce with state power and scientific knowledge. By the 18th century, and largely thanks to agrarian entrepreneurs such as Townshend, Coke, and Tull, Britain was undergoing an agricultural revolution that would underpin the later industrial revolution and consequent population growth. Botany became all the rage in court circles across Europe, from Vienna to Madrid. Botanical gardens established throughout the Anglo-Dutch empires simultaneously served economic, scientific, and aesthetic purposes. Crops such as sugar, tea, coffee, and cocoa served both as stimuli for expansion and lucrative products for the maturing empires. Greater understanding of the mechanisms of plant reproduction enabled breeders to experiment with new hybrids and mutations in order to enhance crop variation.Less
The expansion of the British and Dutch mercantile empires from the 17th century was accompanied by a renewal of the old Babylonian concept of Imperial Botany, now made all the more effective by a new marriage of private commerce with state power and scientific knowledge. By the 18th century, and largely thanks to agrarian entrepreneurs such as Townshend, Coke, and Tull, Britain was undergoing an agricultural revolution that would underpin the later industrial revolution and consequent population growth. Botany became all the rage in court circles across Europe, from Vienna to Madrid. Botanical gardens established throughout the Anglo-Dutch empires simultaneously served economic, scientific, and aesthetic purposes. Crops such as sugar, tea, coffee, and cocoa served both as stimuli for expansion and lucrative products for the maturing empires. Greater understanding of the mechanisms of plant reproduction enabled breeders to experiment with new hybrids and mutations in order to enhance crop variation.
Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199276684
- eISBN:
- 9780191603389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199276684.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The scientific practices and attitudes to science of the Quaker and Jewish communities are compared and contrasted. Quakers tended to be more involved in science — especially the observational ...
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The scientific practices and attitudes to science of the Quaker and Jewish communities are compared and contrasted. Quakers tended to be more involved in science — especially the observational sciences like botany — but they were somewhat reserved when it came to scientific theorizing. In contrast, Jews, although generally less involved in science, were philosophically more adventurous. Two important conclusions from this study relating to the late Victorian period are: first, in both communities, modernizers drew on contemporary science — including the theory of evolution — in opposing traditionalists; second (although for different reasons), Quakers and Jews were generally sympathetic to Darwin’s theory of evolution.Less
The scientific practices and attitudes to science of the Quaker and Jewish communities are compared and contrasted. Quakers tended to be more involved in science — especially the observational sciences like botany — but they were somewhat reserved when it came to scientific theorizing. In contrast, Jews, although generally less involved in science, were philosophically more adventurous. Two important conclusions from this study relating to the late Victorian period are: first, in both communities, modernizers drew on contemporary science — including the theory of evolution — in opposing traditionalists; second (although for different reasons), Quakers and Jews were generally sympathetic to Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Mark Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199577736
- eISBN:
- 9780191595196
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577736.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
During the late seventeenth and eighteenth century, bloodletting as a treatment for common tropical diseases such as fevers and dysentery was superseded or supplemented by a host of new remedies. ...
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During the late seventeenth and eighteenth century, bloodletting as a treatment for common tropical diseases such as fevers and dysentery was superseded or supplemented by a host of new remedies. Some, such as the fabled bezoar stone, were of mysterious provenance, but excited great attention in Britain as well as in the colonies. Botanical remedies, such as cinchona bark and other febrifuges, also became very popular throughout the British Empire, their worth being established initially in the tropical colonies. Medical practitioners often engaged in botanical expeditions or entered into dialogue with indigenous practitioners to find other new drugs, some of which were exported from the colonies to Britain. What most of these medicines had in common was that they were supposed to have antiseptic properties: that is, they were able to counteract the putrefaction supposedly characteristic of tropical diseases.Less
During the late seventeenth and eighteenth century, bloodletting as a treatment for common tropical diseases such as fevers and dysentery was superseded or supplemented by a host of new remedies. Some, such as the fabled bezoar stone, were of mysterious provenance, but excited great attention in Britain as well as in the colonies. Botanical remedies, such as cinchona bark and other febrifuges, also became very popular throughout the British Empire, their worth being established initially in the tropical colonies. Medical practitioners often engaged in botanical expeditions or entered into dialogue with indigenous practitioners to find other new drugs, some of which were exported from the colonies to Britain. What most of these medicines had in common was that they were supposed to have antiseptic properties: that is, they were able to counteract the putrefaction supposedly characteristic of tropical diseases.
David A. West
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813062600
- eISBN:
- 9780813051581
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813062600.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
Darwin’s Man in Brazil is a scientific biography of Fritz Müller that presents relevant familial, institutional, methodological, philosophical, and political backgrounds for understanding Müller’s ...
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Darwin’s Man in Brazil is a scientific biography of Fritz Müller that presents relevant familial, institutional, methodological, philosophical, and political backgrounds for understanding Müller’s career. It emphasizes Müller’s central importance to the development of evolutionary biology between 1860 and 1890 and West’s striking claim that, among Darwin’s correspondents, Müller was Darwin’s closest intellectual kin. In the 1840s Müller had excellent training in Germany in anatomy, botany, marine biology, natural history, physiology, and zoology. A free thinker who refused to sign the Christian oaths required of teachers in Prussia, Müller emigrated to Brazil in 1852 to become a pioneer farmer and conduct research on tropical biology. He built his farm from scratch in a German settlement in a primeval forest in Santa Catarina province. In the 1860s he reorganized his biological research to test Darwin’s theory of evolution and conducted field studies to answer questions generated from a Darwinian perspective. He was unique among natural historians in testing Darwin’s theory of natural selection by investigating an enormous diversity of plants and animals rather than a relatively narrow range of taxa. In correspondence, Müller and Darwin introduced new topics to each other and worked out how best to articulate and test various Darwinian claims. Müller’s extensive publications, correspondence, and interactions with Darwin demonstrate that natural history provided stronger support for Darwin’s theory than was hitherto recognized. They also illuminate the communication networks that enabled biologists living far from the European centers to make dramatic contributions to biological theory and practice in the nineteenth century.Less
Darwin’s Man in Brazil is a scientific biography of Fritz Müller that presents relevant familial, institutional, methodological, philosophical, and political backgrounds for understanding Müller’s career. It emphasizes Müller’s central importance to the development of evolutionary biology between 1860 and 1890 and West’s striking claim that, among Darwin’s correspondents, Müller was Darwin’s closest intellectual kin. In the 1840s Müller had excellent training in Germany in anatomy, botany, marine biology, natural history, physiology, and zoology. A free thinker who refused to sign the Christian oaths required of teachers in Prussia, Müller emigrated to Brazil in 1852 to become a pioneer farmer and conduct research on tropical biology. He built his farm from scratch in a German settlement in a primeval forest in Santa Catarina province. In the 1860s he reorganized his biological research to test Darwin’s theory of evolution and conducted field studies to answer questions generated from a Darwinian perspective. He was unique among natural historians in testing Darwin’s theory of natural selection by investigating an enormous diversity of plants and animals rather than a relatively narrow range of taxa. In correspondence, Müller and Darwin introduced new topics to each other and worked out how best to articulate and test various Darwinian claims. Müller’s extensive publications, correspondence, and interactions with Darwin demonstrate that natural history provided stronger support for Darwin’s theory than was hitherto recognized. They also illuminate the communication networks that enabled biologists living far from the European centers to make dramatic contributions to biological theory and practice in the nineteenth century.
Leonid Zhmud
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199289318
- eISBN:
- 9780191741371
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199289318.003.0011
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter begins with a discussion of Greek medicine. In the lifetime of Pythagoras the physicians of Croton enjoyed the greatest renown. The volume of evidence on medicine in Croton allows us to ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of Greek medicine. In the lifetime of Pythagoras the physicians of Croton enjoyed the greatest renown. The volume of evidence on medicine in Croton allows us to judge its nature and its role in the development of Greek medicine. The discussion then turns to physiology and anatomy, embryology, and botany.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of Greek medicine. In the lifetime of Pythagoras the physicians of Croton enjoyed the greatest renown. The volume of evidence on medicine in Croton allows us to judge its nature and its role in the development of Greek medicine. The discussion then turns to physiology and anatomy, embryology, and botany.
Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199594931
- eISBN:
- 9780191595745
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594931.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, General
This chapter examines three examples of non‐reductionist natural philosophy, something supported, at a philosophical level, by Locke's anti‐reductionist approach. The first is John Ray's rejection of ...
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This chapter examines three examples of non‐reductionist natural philosophy, something supported, at a philosophical level, by Locke's anti‐reductionist approach. The first is John Ray's rejection of the ideas that there is a single basis for botanical classification. The second is Stephen Gray's phenomenological account of electrical conductivity, which makes no attempt to account for the phenomena in terms of underlying corpuscular activity. The third is Étienne Geoffroy's phenomenological account of chemical combination, which likewise makes no attempt to account for the phenomena in terms of underlying corpuscular activity. The chapter concludes with a discussion of horizontal versus vertical forms of explanation.Less
This chapter examines three examples of non‐reductionist natural philosophy, something supported, at a philosophical level, by Locke's anti‐reductionist approach. The first is John Ray's rejection of the ideas that there is a single basis for botanical classification. The second is Stephen Gray's phenomenological account of electrical conductivity, which makes no attempt to account for the phenomena in terms of underlying corpuscular activity. The third is Étienne Geoffroy's phenomenological account of chemical combination, which likewise makes no attempt to account for the phenomena in terms of underlying corpuscular activity. The chapter concludes with a discussion of horizontal versus vertical forms of explanation.
Amy M. King
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195161519
- eISBN:
- 9780199787838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161519.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter begins with a brief discussion of the focus on this book: the girl “in bloom,” or the female whose social and sexual maturation is expressed by the use of a word (bloom) whose genealogy ...
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This chapter begins with a brief discussion of the focus on this book: the girl “in bloom,” or the female whose social and sexual maturation is expressed by the use of a word (bloom) whose genealogy can be traced back to the function of the bloom or flower in Linnaeus's botanical system. The chapter then discusses the use of bloom in 18th- and 19th-century fiction, and the one-to-one correspondences between botanical theory and novelistic practice. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.Less
This chapter begins with a brief discussion of the focus on this book: the girl “in bloom,” or the female whose social and sexual maturation is expressed by the use of a word (bloom) whose genealogy can be traced back to the function of the bloom or flower in Linnaeus's botanical system. The chapter then discusses the use of bloom in 18th- and 19th-century fiction, and the one-to-one correspondences between botanical theory and novelistic practice. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.
Amy M. King
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195161519
- eISBN:
- 9780199787838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161519.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter focuses on the set of meanings about botany and botanical practices that were forming in the 18th century to understand the botanical vernacular in its emergent stages. It argues that ...
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This chapter focuses on the set of meanings about botany and botanical practices that were forming in the 18th century to understand the botanical vernacular in its emergent stages. It argues that the bloom narrative emerged from the Linnaean context and then developed as a literary narrative; bloom does not shift in accordance with the botanical changes of the 1830s and beyond but rather with the literary tides out of which that narrative grew. Maria Edgeworth's Belinda, and the poems of Charlotte Smith and Erasmus Darwin are analyzed.Less
This chapter focuses on the set of meanings about botany and botanical practices that were forming in the 18th century to understand the botanical vernacular in its emergent stages. It argues that the bloom narrative emerged from the Linnaean context and then developed as a literary narrative; bloom does not shift in accordance with the botanical changes of the 1830s and beyond but rather with the literary tides out of which that narrative grew. Maria Edgeworth's Belinda, and the poems of Charlotte Smith and Erasmus Darwin are analyzed.
Nicola Luckhurst
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198160021
- eISBN:
- 9780191673740
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198160021.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter reflects upon three modeling scenarios — the aesthetics, the mimetic (Swann as model), and the scientific — in order to explore some key concepts and structures: repetition and ...
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This chapter reflects upon three modeling scenarios — the aesthetics, the mimetic (Swann as model), and the scientific — in order to explore some key concepts and structures: repetition and reproduction, sameness and difference, and affective and objective relationships with the law. These pairs are all variations generated by the self-model pair, and offer different perspectives on the dialogue between the particular and the general in A la recherche.Less
This chapter reflects upon three modeling scenarios — the aesthetics, the mimetic (Swann as model), and the scientific — in order to explore some key concepts and structures: repetition and reproduction, sameness and difference, and affective and objective relationships with the law. These pairs are all variations generated by the self-model pair, and offer different perspectives on the dialogue between the particular and the general in A la recherche.
Jack Morrell
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206576
- eISBN:
- 9780191677229
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206576.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines the developments in the teaching of the so-called small sciences at Oxford University in England from 1914 to 1939. These small sciences include botany, zoology, geology, ...
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This chapter examines the developments in the teaching of the so-called small sciences at Oxford University in England from 1914 to 1939. These small sciences include botany, zoology, geology, mineralogy and crystallography, astronomy, history of science, and history of anthropology. These subjects were recognized by the university with a chair, a readership, and a curatorship but they existed almost totally outside the colleges. These subjects were not only peripheral to the colleges, they were small and attracted only a few undergraduates and in some cases regular teaching was not offered.Less
This chapter examines the developments in the teaching of the so-called small sciences at Oxford University in England from 1914 to 1939. These small sciences include botany, zoology, geology, mineralogy and crystallography, astronomy, history of science, and history of anthropology. These subjects were recognized by the university with a chair, a readership, and a curatorship but they existed almost totally outside the colleges. These subjects were not only peripheral to the colleges, they were small and attracted only a few undergraduates and in some cases regular teaching was not offered.
John M. Dixon
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801448034
- eISBN:
- 9781501703515
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801448034.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
Was there a conservative Enlightenment? Could a self-proclaimed man of learning and progressive science also have been an agent of monarchy and reaction? Cadwallader Colden (1688–1776), an educated ...
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Was there a conservative Enlightenment? Could a self-proclaimed man of learning and progressive science also have been an agent of monarchy and reaction? Cadwallader Colden (1688–1776), an educated Scottish emigrant and powerful colonial politician, was at the forefront of American intellectual culture in the mid-eighteenth century. While living in rural New York, he recruited family, friends, servants, and slaves into multiple scientific ventures and built a transatlantic network of contacts and correspondents that included Benjamin Franklin and Carl Linnaeus. Over several decades, Colden pioneered colonial botany, produced new theories of animal and human physiology, authored an influential history of the Iroquois, and developed bold new principles of physics and an engaging explanation of the cause of gravity. This book traces the life and ideas of this fascinating and controversial “gentleman-scholar.” It explores the overlapping ideological, social, and political worlds of this earliest of New York intellectuals. Colden and other learned colonials used intellectual practices to assert their gentility and establish their social and political superiority, but their elitist claims to cultural authority remained flimsy and open to widespread local derision. Although Colden, who governed New York as an unpopular Crown loyalist during the imperial crises of the 1760s and 1770s, was brutally lampooned by the New York press, his scientific work, which was published in Europe, raised the international profile of American intellectualism.Less
Was there a conservative Enlightenment? Could a self-proclaimed man of learning and progressive science also have been an agent of monarchy and reaction? Cadwallader Colden (1688–1776), an educated Scottish emigrant and powerful colonial politician, was at the forefront of American intellectual culture in the mid-eighteenth century. While living in rural New York, he recruited family, friends, servants, and slaves into multiple scientific ventures and built a transatlantic network of contacts and correspondents that included Benjamin Franklin and Carl Linnaeus. Over several decades, Colden pioneered colonial botany, produced new theories of animal and human physiology, authored an influential history of the Iroquois, and developed bold new principles of physics and an engaging explanation of the cause of gravity. This book traces the life and ideas of this fascinating and controversial “gentleman-scholar.” It explores the overlapping ideological, social, and political worlds of this earliest of New York intellectuals. Colden and other learned colonials used intellectual practices to assert their gentility and establish their social and political superiority, but their elitist claims to cultural authority remained flimsy and open to widespread local derision. Although Colden, who governed New York as an unpopular Crown loyalist during the imperial crises of the 1760s and 1770s, was brutally lampooned by the New York press, his scientific work, which was published in Europe, raised the international profile of American intellectualism.
Kristin Czarnecki and Carrie Rohman (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780983533900
- eISBN:
- 9781781382202
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780983533900.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This book is a compilation of thirty-one chapters which contain discussions presented at the twentieth annual international conference on Virginia Woolf. This volume explores Woolf's complex ...
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This book is a compilation of thirty-one chapters which contain discussions presented at the twentieth annual international conference on Virginia Woolf. This volume explores Woolf's complex engagement with the natural world, an engagement that was as political as it was aesthetic. The diversity of topics within this collection—ecofeminism, the nature of time, the nature of the self, nature and sporting, botany, climate, and landscape, just to name a few—fosters a deeper understanding of the nature of nature in Woolf's works.Less
This book is a compilation of thirty-one chapters which contain discussions presented at the twentieth annual international conference on Virginia Woolf. This volume explores Woolf's complex engagement with the natural world, an engagement that was as political as it was aesthetic. The diversity of topics within this collection—ecofeminism, the nature of time, the nature of the self, nature and sporting, botany, climate, and landscape, just to name a few—fosters a deeper understanding of the nature of nature in Woolf's works.
Dale Walters
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781683401674
- eISBN:
- 9781683402343
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9781683401674.003.0003
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This chapter looks at both the Theobroma cacao tree and its cultivation. It covers cacao botany: its unusual habit of cauliflory, where the flowers, and hence the pods, arise directly from the trunk ...
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This chapter looks at both the Theobroma cacao tree and its cultivation. It covers cacao botany: its unusual habit of cauliflory, where the flowers, and hence the pods, arise directly from the trunk and main branches of the tree; pollination of its flowers, which is linked with the ecology of the rain forest in which it grows; and dispersal of its seeds, which is almost unique in its dependency on vertebrate animals such as monkeys, bats, and squirrels. The chapter also deals with the cultivation of cacao, mostly by smallholder farmers on individual, family-managed farms, typically 0.5 –7 ha in size, in the lowland tropical regions of Latin America, West Africa, and Indonesia. Finally, the chapter examines the impact of the increasing demand for chocolate on the push towards the intensification of cocoa cultivation, threatening to shift production even further from the traditionally managed, sustainable cultivation systems of the past.Less
This chapter looks at both the Theobroma cacao tree and its cultivation. It covers cacao botany: its unusual habit of cauliflory, where the flowers, and hence the pods, arise directly from the trunk and main branches of the tree; pollination of its flowers, which is linked with the ecology of the rain forest in which it grows; and dispersal of its seeds, which is almost unique in its dependency on vertebrate animals such as monkeys, bats, and squirrels. The chapter also deals with the cultivation of cacao, mostly by smallholder farmers on individual, family-managed farms, typically 0.5 –7 ha in size, in the lowland tropical regions of Latin America, West Africa, and Indonesia. Finally, the chapter examines the impact of the increasing demand for chocolate on the push towards the intensification of cocoa cultivation, threatening to shift production even further from the traditionally managed, sustainable cultivation systems of the past.
Courtney Fullilove
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226454863
- eISBN:
- 9780226455051
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226455051.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
The Profit of the Earth is a new history of American agricultural development, characterizing crop seeds as deep time technologies transformed by millennia of human intervention. While the ...
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The Profit of the Earth is a new history of American agricultural development, characterizing crop seeds as deep time technologies transformed by millennia of human intervention. While the contemporary United States is a patchwork of large-scale monocultures, the book explores unrealized alternatives, from a Midwestern prairie harvested for production of botanic medicines to an American South populated by smallholders cultivating tea. Understanding why these futures were unrealized, and at what cost, conjures the histories of diverse people, plants, and knowledge on the move. Weaving together the lives of German and Russian immigrant farmers, British colonial officers, prairie plant collectors, and Ohio pharmacists, the book explores how institutionalized research and development represented and transformed diverse local knowledge of plants and their cultivation. Fullilove recasts the amber waves of grain immortalized in "America the Beautiful" not as an inherited Eden, but rather a novel landscape constructed by transplanted seeds and the skilled labor of willing and unwilling immigrants. Through narratives of improvisation, appropriation, and loss, the author explores contradictions between ideologies of property rights and common use that persist in national and international development, challenging readers to rethink fantasies of global agriculture’s past and future.Less
The Profit of the Earth is a new history of American agricultural development, characterizing crop seeds as deep time technologies transformed by millennia of human intervention. While the contemporary United States is a patchwork of large-scale monocultures, the book explores unrealized alternatives, from a Midwestern prairie harvested for production of botanic medicines to an American South populated by smallholders cultivating tea. Understanding why these futures were unrealized, and at what cost, conjures the histories of diverse people, plants, and knowledge on the move. Weaving together the lives of German and Russian immigrant farmers, British colonial officers, prairie plant collectors, and Ohio pharmacists, the book explores how institutionalized research and development represented and transformed diverse local knowledge of plants and their cultivation. Fullilove recasts the amber waves of grain immortalized in "America the Beautiful" not as an inherited Eden, but rather a novel landscape constructed by transplanted seeds and the skilled labor of willing and unwilling immigrants. Through narratives of improvisation, appropriation, and loss, the author explores contradictions between ideologies of property rights and common use that persist in national and international development, challenging readers to rethink fantasies of global agriculture’s past and future.
John A. Stempien and John Linstrom (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501740237
- eISBN:
- 9781501740275
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501740237.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
The botanical process of a plant growing, from germination of a seed in the earth to stem, leaf, and eventual flowering, is described in detail and is regarded as an alchemical miracle that cannot be ...
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The botanical process of a plant growing, from germination of a seed in the earth to stem, leaf, and eventual flowering, is described in detail and is regarded as an alchemical miracle that cannot be explained.Less
The botanical process of a plant growing, from germination of a seed in the earth to stem, leaf, and eventual flowering, is described in detail and is regarded as an alchemical miracle that cannot be explained.
John A. Stempien and John Linstrom (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501740237
- eISBN:
- 9781501740275
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501740237.003.0048
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
This essay is simultaneously an intimate autobiographical reflection and a sensory botanical portrait of dianthus, particularly a variety known as "grass pinks" or "cottage pinks." Referring to the ...
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This essay is simultaneously an intimate autobiographical reflection and a sensory botanical portrait of dianthus, particularly a variety known as "grass pinks" or "cottage pinks." Referring to the work of botanist John Gerard and seedsman/editor James Vick, Bailey reflects on this plant, and his reflection serves as a testament to the garden-sentiment as it weaves together plant and person into a single life tapestry.Less
This essay is simultaneously an intimate autobiographical reflection and a sensory botanical portrait of dianthus, particularly a variety known as "grass pinks" or "cottage pinks." Referring to the work of botanist John Gerard and seedsman/editor James Vick, Bailey reflects on this plant, and his reflection serves as a testament to the garden-sentiment as it weaves together plant and person into a single life tapestry.
Alexander von Humboldt
Vera M. Kutzinski and Ottmar Ette (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226465678
- eISBN:
- 9780226465685
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226465685.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The research Alexander von Humboldt amassed during his five-year trek through the Americas in the early nineteenth century proved foundational to the fields of botany, geography, and geology. But his ...
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The research Alexander von Humboldt amassed during his five-year trek through the Americas in the early nineteenth century proved foundational to the fields of botany, geography, and geology. But his visit to Cuba during this time yielded observations that extended far beyond the natural world—this book is a physical and cultural study of the island nation. In it, Humboldt denounces colonial slavery on both moral and economic grounds and stresses the vital importance of improving intercultural relations throughout the Americas. This was Humboldt's most controversial book—it was banned, censored, and willfully mistranslated to suppress the author's strong antislavery sentiments. This edition is newly translated from the original two volume French edition. The critical introduction underlines Humboldt's ability to combine scientific rigor with a cosmopolitan consciousness and a philosophical humanism.Less
The research Alexander von Humboldt amassed during his five-year trek through the Americas in the early nineteenth century proved foundational to the fields of botany, geography, and geology. But his visit to Cuba during this time yielded observations that extended far beyond the natural world—this book is a physical and cultural study of the island nation. In it, Humboldt denounces colonial slavery on both moral and economic grounds and stresses the vital importance of improving intercultural relations throughout the Americas. This was Humboldt's most controversial book—it was banned, censored, and willfully mistranslated to suppress the author's strong antislavery sentiments. This edition is newly translated from the original two volume French edition. The critical introduction underlines Humboldt's ability to combine scientific rigor with a cosmopolitan consciousness and a philosophical humanism.
Natania Meeker and Antónia Szabari
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780823286638
- eISBN:
- 9780823288847
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823286638.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Radical Botany uncovers a long speculative tradition of plant fiction that conjures up new languages to grasp the life of plants—their vegetality—in all its specificity and vigor. The first part of ...
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Radical Botany uncovers a long speculative tradition of plant fiction that conjures up new languages to grasp the life of plants—their vegetality—in all its specificity and vigor. The first part of the book reaches back to seventeenth-century materialisms to show how plants, rather than being systematically excluded from human deliberation, have in fact participated in modernity. The French authors with whom the work begins turn to plants to think through the problems and paradoxes that face all forms of life considered first as matter. Within this framework, plants are ascribed an agency and vitality that might otherwise seem foreign to them, but they are also envisioned as beings that resist incorporation into human contexts and thus have something to teach humans about their limitations and vulnerabilities. Classically, the botanical sciences that develop over the course of the long eighteenth century function as a project for ordering, visualizing, labeling, and classifying life. In Radical Botany, the authors unearth an alternative set of engagements with the plant as a life form—a tradition that conceives of vegetal life as resisting representability even as it participates in the production of new representational modes—including the novel, early cinema, and contemporary virtual reality—and new affects—including queer desires, feminist affinities, and ecological solidarities. The radical botanical works this book explores not only prioritize plants as active participants in “their” world but suggest that the apparent passivity of plants can function as a powerful destabilizing force in its own right.Less
Radical Botany uncovers a long speculative tradition of plant fiction that conjures up new languages to grasp the life of plants—their vegetality—in all its specificity and vigor. The first part of the book reaches back to seventeenth-century materialisms to show how plants, rather than being systematically excluded from human deliberation, have in fact participated in modernity. The French authors with whom the work begins turn to plants to think through the problems and paradoxes that face all forms of life considered first as matter. Within this framework, plants are ascribed an agency and vitality that might otherwise seem foreign to them, but they are also envisioned as beings that resist incorporation into human contexts and thus have something to teach humans about their limitations and vulnerabilities. Classically, the botanical sciences that develop over the course of the long eighteenth century function as a project for ordering, visualizing, labeling, and classifying life. In Radical Botany, the authors unearth an alternative set of engagements with the plant as a life form—a tradition that conceives of vegetal life as resisting representability even as it participates in the production of new representational modes—including the novel, early cinema, and contemporary virtual reality—and new affects—including queer desires, feminist affinities, and ecological solidarities. The radical botanical works this book explores not only prioritize plants as active participants in “their” world but suggest that the apparent passivity of plants can function as a powerful destabilizing force in its own right.
