Todd M. Preuss
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195326598
- eISBN:
- 9780199864904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326598.003.0022
- Subject:
- Psychology, Neuropsychology, Evolutionary Psychology
This chapter advocates an evolutionary approach to understanding comparative brain anatomy in primates. It argues that deep understanding of the relationships between brain and behavior requires ...
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This chapter advocates an evolutionary approach to understanding comparative brain anatomy in primates. It argues that deep understanding of the relationships between brain and behavior requires determining how evolution modifies specific systems of neurons and their interconnections, and not just relating brain size to gross measures of cognition or behavior. Such neuroethological studies will require active management of captive and wild populations of primates needed for detailed comparison.Less
This chapter advocates an evolutionary approach to understanding comparative brain anatomy in primates. It argues that deep understanding of the relationships between brain and behavior requires determining how evolution modifies specific systems of neurons and their interconnections, and not just relating brain size to gross measures of cognition or behavior. Such neuroethological studies will require active management of captive and wild populations of primates needed for detailed comparison.
Tim Fulford
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199273379
- eISBN:
- 9780191706332
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199273379.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter focuses on white theories about the racial and cultural origin of Indians.
This chapter focuses on white theories about the racial and cultural origin of Indians.
Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198757634
- eISBN:
- 9780191817366
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198757634.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
The natural history of man comprises comparative anatomy; what in the eighteenth century was termed ‘physical geography’ (in more modern terms a mix of human geography and physical geography), which ...
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The natural history of man comprises comparative anatomy; what in the eighteenth century was termed ‘physical geography’ (in more modern terms a mix of human geography and physical geography), which attempts to identify the environmental factors that shape human behaviour; human variation, such as racial variation, and its significance; and the external marks of character, notably physiognomy, craniology, and phrenology. Crucial to this comparative exercise are the questions of whether there is any continuity between apes and humans, what the standing of seemingly half animal/half human feral children is, whether there is a continuity between human races or whether they have separate origins, whether physical differences between men and women extend beyond their reproductive organs, and more generally whether significant differences are due to environmental or intrinsic factors.Less
The natural history of man comprises comparative anatomy; what in the eighteenth century was termed ‘physical geography’ (in more modern terms a mix of human geography and physical geography), which attempts to identify the environmental factors that shape human behaviour; human variation, such as racial variation, and its significance; and the external marks of character, notably physiognomy, craniology, and phrenology. Crucial to this comparative exercise are the questions of whether there is any continuity between apes and humans, what the standing of seemingly half animal/half human feral children is, whether there is a continuity between human races or whether they have separate origins, whether physical differences between men and women extend beyond their reproductive organs, and more generally whether significant differences are due to environmental or intrinsic factors.
Anita Guerrini
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226247663
- eISBN:
- 9780226248332
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226248332.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The French played a distinctive role in the many comparative anatomies of this era. Perrault and the Academy joined anatomy closely to natural history and did not assume uniformity in nature, unlike ...
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The French played a distinctive role in the many comparative anatomies of this era. Perrault and the Academy joined anatomy closely to natural history and did not assume uniformity in nature, unlike most mechanical philosophers. Ideas about animal mechanism were indeed diverse and eclectic, and LeClerc and Manget’s 1685 Bibliotheca anatomica included several variations on this theme. The Academy’s comparative anatomy also contributed to discussions of classification and the definition of species. Anatomy in seventeenth-century Paris formed part of a wider cultural milieu that intertwined intellectual and courtly activities, where ancient and modern ideas coexisted as well as clashed. The honnêtes hommes of the academies and salons of Paris mingled science, art, music, and literature as interdependent forms of knowledge.Less
The French played a distinctive role in the many comparative anatomies of this era. Perrault and the Academy joined anatomy closely to natural history and did not assume uniformity in nature, unlike most mechanical philosophers. Ideas about animal mechanism were indeed diverse and eclectic, and LeClerc and Manget’s 1685 Bibliotheca anatomica included several variations on this theme. The Academy’s comparative anatomy also contributed to discussions of classification and the definition of species. Anatomy in seventeenth-century Paris formed part of a wider cultural milieu that intertwined intellectual and courtly activities, where ancient and modern ideas coexisted as well as clashed. The honnêtes hommes of the academies and salons of Paris mingled science, art, music, and literature as interdependent forms of knowledge.
Peter Cryle and Elizabeth Stephens
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226483863
- eISBN:
- 9780226484198
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226484198.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
The term “normal” first came into usage in French anatomy in the early 1820s. It was used to refer to organs that were fixed in their roles and highly integrated with those around them. In this ...
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The term “normal” first came into usage in French anatomy in the early 1820s. It was used to refer to organs that were fixed in their roles and highly integrated with those around them. In this sense, the normal was not thought as the opposite of the abnormal. It simply referred to a law-governed regularity. A binary usage did emerge a few years later in physiology, where the normal state was opposed to pathological ones. So almost from the outset there was divergence between disciplines about the value of the term. A further question arose in teratology: was it appropriate to think of the normal state as one that simply occurred more frequently than any other, thus allowing monstrosity to be defined by its rarity? In fact some forms of monstrosity were found relatively often, whereas anatomical perfection was a rare thing indeed. These conceptual difficulties proved to be intractable for medical thinking during the 1820s and 1830s. A high-profile debate that took place in 1831 gave a sharp polemical edge to disagreement, but led to no resolution. Even as medical thinkers went on speaking about the normal state, they continued to equivocate between qualitative (law-governed) and quantitative (frequentist) thinking.Less
The term “normal” first came into usage in French anatomy in the early 1820s. It was used to refer to organs that were fixed in their roles and highly integrated with those around them. In this sense, the normal was not thought as the opposite of the abnormal. It simply referred to a law-governed regularity. A binary usage did emerge a few years later in physiology, where the normal state was opposed to pathological ones. So almost from the outset there was divergence between disciplines about the value of the term. A further question arose in teratology: was it appropriate to think of the normal state as one that simply occurred more frequently than any other, thus allowing monstrosity to be defined by its rarity? In fact some forms of monstrosity were found relatively often, whereas anatomical perfection was a rare thing indeed. These conceptual difficulties proved to be intractable for medical thinking during the 1820s and 1830s. A high-profile debate that took place in 1831 gave a sharp polemical edge to disagreement, but led to no resolution. Even as medical thinkers went on speaking about the normal state, they continued to equivocate between qualitative (law-governed) and quantitative (frequentist) thinking.
Charles R., Jr. Ault
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501704673
- eISBN:
- 9781501705861
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501704673.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
Thinking whimsically makes serious science accessible. That's a message that should be taken to heart by all readers who want to learn about evolution. This book invites readers into serious ...
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Thinking whimsically makes serious science accessible. That's a message that should be taken to heart by all readers who want to learn about evolution. This book invites readers into serious appreciation of Darwinian histories by deploying the playful thinking found in children's books. The book weds children's literature to recent research in paleontology and evolutionary biology. Inquiring into the origins of origins stories, the book presents three portraits of Charles Darwin—curious child, twentysomething adventurer, and elderly worm scientist. Chapters focusing on the origins of tetrapods, elephants, whales, and birds explain fundamental Darwinian concepts with examples of fossil history and comparative anatomy. The imagery of the children's story offers a way to remember and recreate scientific discoveries. By juxtaposing Darwin's science with tales for children, the book underscores the importance of whimsical storytelling to the accomplishment of serious thinking. Darwin mused about duck beaks and swimming bears as he imagined a pathway for the origin of baleen. A “bearduck” chimera may be a stretch, but the science linking not just cows but also whales to moose through shared ancestry has great merit. By calling attention to surprising and serendipitous echoes between children's stories and challenging science, the book demonstrates how playful thinking opens the doors to an understanding of evolutionary thought.Less
Thinking whimsically makes serious science accessible. That's a message that should be taken to heart by all readers who want to learn about evolution. This book invites readers into serious appreciation of Darwinian histories by deploying the playful thinking found in children's books. The book weds children's literature to recent research in paleontology and evolutionary biology. Inquiring into the origins of origins stories, the book presents three portraits of Charles Darwin—curious child, twentysomething adventurer, and elderly worm scientist. Chapters focusing on the origins of tetrapods, elephants, whales, and birds explain fundamental Darwinian concepts with examples of fossil history and comparative anatomy. The imagery of the children's story offers a way to remember and recreate scientific discoveries. By juxtaposing Darwin's science with tales for children, the book underscores the importance of whimsical storytelling to the accomplishment of serious thinking. Darwin mused about duck beaks and swimming bears as he imagined a pathway for the origin of baleen. A “bearduck” chimera may be a stretch, but the science linking not just cows but also whales to moose through shared ancestry has great merit. By calling attention to surprising and serendipitous echoes between children's stories and challenging science, the book demonstrates how playful thinking opens the doors to an understanding of evolutionary thought.
Anita Guerrini
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226247663
- eISBN:
- 9780226248332
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226248332.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
In the last third of the seventeenth century, the Paris Academy of Sciences pursued two dissection projects, of exotic animals and of living and dead domestic animals coupled with the dissection of ...
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In the last third of the seventeenth century, the Paris Academy of Sciences pursued two dissection projects, of exotic animals and of living and dead domestic animals coupled with the dissection of human cadavers. These projects led to a new experimental comparative anatomy that valued animals as models for humans and as legitimate objects of knowledge in themselves. Claude Perrault led the Academy’s anatomical work, establishing a style of experimenting, collaboration, and publication that set it apart from other European academies. New anatomical subjects included exotic animals from the royal menageries at Vincennes and Versailles. The Academy based its Christian vitalism on Perrault’s mechanistic but non-Cartesian theory of animal mechanism.Less
In the last third of the seventeenth century, the Paris Academy of Sciences pursued two dissection projects, of exotic animals and of living and dead domestic animals coupled with the dissection of human cadavers. These projects led to a new experimental comparative anatomy that valued animals as models for humans and as legitimate objects of knowledge in themselves. Claude Perrault led the Academy’s anatomical work, establishing a style of experimenting, collaboration, and publication that set it apart from other European academies. New anatomical subjects included exotic animals from the royal menageries at Vincennes and Versailles. The Academy based its Christian vitalism on Perrault’s mechanistic but non-Cartesian theory of animal mechanism.
Gowan Dawson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226332734
- eISBN:
- 9780226332871
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226332871.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter explores the Franco-German contexts in which the law of correlation originated, and also considers how Cuvier’s law was used to thwart the transmutationism of Lamarck. It examines ...
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This chapter explores the Franco-German contexts in which the law of correlation originated, and also considers how Cuvier’s law was used to thwart the transmutationism of Lamarck. It examines Cuvier’s rhetorical presentation of his law, and his significant silence on religion. With a particular focus on Edinburgh and translations of Cuvier’s anatomical and geological writings, the chapter shows how, in Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, there was a myriad of different, and often competing, interpretations of the savant, whose works could be repackaged to endorse both conservative and radical, as well as religious and heretical purposes. The law of correlation itself was often more amenable to the interests of radical materialists than to conservative theologians looking to bolster revealed theology.Less
This chapter explores the Franco-German contexts in which the law of correlation originated, and also considers how Cuvier’s law was used to thwart the transmutationism of Lamarck. It examines Cuvier’s rhetorical presentation of his law, and his significant silence on religion. With a particular focus on Edinburgh and translations of Cuvier’s anatomical and geological writings, the chapter shows how, in Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, there was a myriad of different, and often competing, interpretations of the savant, whose works could be repackaged to endorse both conservative and radical, as well as religious and heretical purposes. The law of correlation itself was often more amenable to the interests of radical materialists than to conservative theologians looking to bolster revealed theology.
Britt Rusert
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781479885688
- eISBN:
- 9781479804702
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479885688.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines how Black and Afro-Native ethnologies published in the 1830s and early 1840s resisted the racist visual cultures of comparative anatomy, including craniology and ethnology. The ...
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This chapter examines how Black and Afro-Native ethnologies published in the 1830s and early 1840s resisted the racist visual cultures of comparative anatomy, including craniology and ethnology. The ethnologies of Robert Benjamin Lewis, Hosea Easton, and James W. C. Pennington challenged the tethering of the black body to visual representations of pathology in both science and popular culture through the production of a counter-archive of visual culture, as well as through ekphrastic re-visions of the Black, Native American, and Afro-Native body.Less
This chapter examines how Black and Afro-Native ethnologies published in the 1830s and early 1840s resisted the racist visual cultures of comparative anatomy, including craniology and ethnology. The ethnologies of Robert Benjamin Lewis, Hosea Easton, and James W. C. Pennington challenged the tethering of the black body to visual representations of pathology in both science and popular culture through the production of a counter-archive of visual culture, as well as through ekphrastic re-visions of the Black, Native American, and Afro-Native body.
Anita Guerrini
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226247663
- eISBN:
- 9780226248332
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226248332.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Although the Histoire des animaux had limited circulation in its first incarnation, it had a long afterlife. Following Duverney’s death in 1730, a complete revised edition of the project was ...
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Although the Histoire des animaux had limited circulation in its first incarnation, it had a long afterlife. Following Duverney’s death in 1730, a complete revised edition of the project was undertaken under the guidance of the Academy’s secretary Fontenelle, which appeared in three volumes in 1733–34. Five years later, Buffon took control of the Jardin du roi, and his appointment of Daubenton in the 1740s signaled the revival of comparative anatomy in Paris, made evident in the volumes they jointly undertook of Histoire naturelle between 1749 and 1767. Buffon self-consciously took up where Perrault and Duverney left off.Less
Although the Histoire des animaux had limited circulation in its first incarnation, it had a long afterlife. Following Duverney’s death in 1730, a complete revised edition of the project was undertaken under the guidance of the Academy’s secretary Fontenelle, which appeared in three volumes in 1733–34. Five years later, Buffon took control of the Jardin du roi, and his appointment of Daubenton in the 1740s signaled the revival of comparative anatomy in Paris, made evident in the volumes they jointly undertook of Histoire naturelle between 1749 and 1767. Buffon self-consciously took up where Perrault and Duverney left off.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804755672
- eISBN:
- 9780804781923
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804755672.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This chapter, which explores the site of knowledge production in Egypt and its co-production by Europeans and non-Europeans alike, examines the role of anthropological ideas and practices in the ...
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This chapter, which explores the site of knowledge production in Egypt and its co-production by Europeans and non-Europeans alike, examines the role of anthropological ideas and practices in the development of a social-scientific mode of thought in Egypt. It compares the development of a colonial and an incipient local, or Egyptian, mode of knowledge production in the anthropology of the modern Egyptians. The chapter argues that, despite the existence of a shared culture of anthropology and geography, subtle differences began to emerge, particularly in the heated anti-colonial climate of the interwar period as intellectual production was transformed by political conditions. It first considers the establishment of the Royal Geographic Society of Egypt before turning to Onofrio Abbate Pasha and his use of a biological paradigm in which native difference was described on the basis of physiology, psychology, and comparative anatomy, rather than the classical emphasis on Oriental philology and religion. The chapter also looks at studies in ethnography in Egypt, along with Egyptian folklore and pharaonic and pre-Islamic customs.Less
This chapter, which explores the site of knowledge production in Egypt and its co-production by Europeans and non-Europeans alike, examines the role of anthropological ideas and practices in the development of a social-scientific mode of thought in Egypt. It compares the development of a colonial and an incipient local, or Egyptian, mode of knowledge production in the anthropology of the modern Egyptians. The chapter argues that, despite the existence of a shared culture of anthropology and geography, subtle differences began to emerge, particularly in the heated anti-colonial climate of the interwar period as intellectual production was transformed by political conditions. It first considers the establishment of the Royal Geographic Society of Egypt before turning to Onofrio Abbate Pasha and his use of a biological paradigm in which native difference was described on the basis of physiology, psychology, and comparative anatomy, rather than the classical emphasis on Oriental philology and religion. The chapter also looks at studies in ethnography in Egypt, along with Egyptian folklore and pharaonic and pre-Islamic customs.
Francisco J. Ayala
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226748610
- eISBN:
- 9780226748597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226748597.003.0010
- Subject:
- Biology, Paleontology: Biology
This chapter examines the relationship between evidence for evolution provided by molecular biology and the paleontological evidence in the fossil record. It highlights the continued tension between ...
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This chapter examines the relationship between evidence for evolution provided by molecular biology and the paleontological evidence in the fossil record. It highlights the continued tension between paleontological and biological approaches to evolutionary theory and evaluates whether molecular data establishes a more reliable evolutionary clock than the fossil record. This chapter suggests that molecular evolutionary studies have three notable advantages over paleontology, comparative anatomy, and other classical disciplines. These include quantifiable information, multiplicity, and comparability of very different types of organisms.Less
This chapter examines the relationship between evidence for evolution provided by molecular biology and the paleontological evidence in the fossil record. It highlights the continued tension between paleontological and biological approaches to evolutionary theory and evaluates whether molecular data establishes a more reliable evolutionary clock than the fossil record. This chapter suggests that molecular evolutionary studies have three notable advantages over paleontology, comparative anatomy, and other classical disciplines. These include quantifiable information, multiplicity, and comparability of very different types of organisms.
Richard E. Passingham and James B. Rowe
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198709138
- eISBN:
- 9780191815270
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198709138.003.0004
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Behavioral Neuroscience, Development
Once the statistical analysis has been performed, the location of the activations has to be established. The importance of this step lies in the fact that the location provides a link to the ...
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Once the statistical analysis has been performed, the location of the activations has to be established. The importance of this step lies in the fact that the location provides a link to the anatomical connections, since it is these that constrain the functions of the area. Each cortical area has a unique overall pattern of extrinsic connections, and it is this connectional fingerprint that provides the anatomical basis for functional localization. Thus, it is critical that an activation is assigned to the correct area, and that the localization is not described in terms of a general region, if within that region there are subareas with different connections. One can account for the function in terms of the anatomical connections. The identification of the correct cytoarchitectonic area usually depends on the warping of the image so that it fits a standardized template and the use of a probabilistic atlas to identify the most likely area for the activation.Less
Once the statistical analysis has been performed, the location of the activations has to be established. The importance of this step lies in the fact that the location provides a link to the anatomical connections, since it is these that constrain the functions of the area. Each cortical area has a unique overall pattern of extrinsic connections, and it is this connectional fingerprint that provides the anatomical basis for functional localization. Thus, it is critical that an activation is assigned to the correct area, and that the localization is not described in terms of a general region, if within that region there are subareas with different connections. One can account for the function in terms of the anatomical connections. The identification of the correct cytoarchitectonic area usually depends on the warping of the image so that it fits a standardized template and the use of a probabilistic atlas to identify the most likely area for the activation.