Nancy J. Jacobs
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300209617
- eISBN:
- 9780300220803
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209617.003.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Ornithology
This introductory chapter discusses a history of the knowledge that people create around diverse and fascinating animals, such as birds. With the goal of a symmetrical analysis of all forms of bird ...
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This introductory chapter discusses a history of the knowledge that people create around diverse and fascinating animals, such as birds. With the goal of a symmetrical analysis of all forms of bird knowledge, this book refers to all people who know birds as “birders,” a term which usually means “birdwatcher.” A small but visible group of birders are scientists, more specifically known as “ornithologists.” Meanwhile, the word “knowledge” acts as the generic term for what people know about birds. The chapter recognizes three types of bird knowledge—vernacular, ornithological, and recreational—and uses them to illustrate broader issues such as interactions between vernacular knowledge and science, relations among colonial subjects and imperial authorities, the operation of race and honor among people, and the decolonization of colonial culture and scientific practice.Less
This introductory chapter discusses a history of the knowledge that people create around diverse and fascinating animals, such as birds. With the goal of a symmetrical analysis of all forms of bird knowledge, this book refers to all people who know birds as “birders,” a term which usually means “birdwatcher.” A small but visible group of birders are scientists, more specifically known as “ornithologists.” Meanwhile, the word “knowledge” acts as the generic term for what people know about birds. The chapter recognizes three types of bird knowledge—vernacular, ornithological, and recreational—and uses them to illustrate broader issues such as interactions between vernacular knowledge and science, relations among colonial subjects and imperial authorities, the operation of race and honor among people, and the decolonization of colonial culture and scientific practice.
Nancy J. Jacobs
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300209617
- eISBN:
- 9780300220803
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209617.003.0003
- Subject:
- Biology, Ornithology
This chapter studies how birders from northwest Europe saw African birds on their earliest travels to the Cape of Good Hope. Mariners and gardeners drew on European vernacular knowledge, but what ...
More
This chapter studies how birders from northwest Europe saw African birds on their earliest travels to the Cape of Good Hope. Mariners and gardeners drew on European vernacular knowledge, but what they reported about African birds was taken up in elite European scholarly production, which had been vitalized during the Renaissance. The evolution of elite European expertise about nature took place gradually over centuries: from achieving authority on classical texts, to the expansion of knowledge in encyclopedias, to assembling cabinet and museum collections, to the systematic presentation of plants and animals in the new genre of natural history. The chapter, however, does not intend to reinsert the divide between indigenous and scientific knowledge; rather, it explores bird traditions as specific historical phenomena and examines interactions among individuals wielding their forms of skill and mastery.Less
This chapter studies how birders from northwest Europe saw African birds on their earliest travels to the Cape of Good Hope. Mariners and gardeners drew on European vernacular knowledge, but what they reported about African birds was taken up in elite European scholarly production, which had been vitalized during the Renaissance. The evolution of elite European expertise about nature took place gradually over centuries: from achieving authority on classical texts, to the expansion of knowledge in encyclopedias, to assembling cabinet and museum collections, to the systematic presentation of plants and animals in the new genre of natural history. The chapter, however, does not intend to reinsert the divide between indigenous and scientific knowledge; rather, it explores bird traditions as specific historical phenomena and examines interactions among individuals wielding their forms of skill and mastery.
Nancy J. Jacobs
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300209617
- eISBN:
- 9780300220803
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209617.003.0009
- Subject:
- Biology, Ornithology
This chapter focuses on the emergence of recreational birdwatching, an activity of finding, noting, and recording birds by species, often with an emphasis on quantifiable personal achievement. Its ...
More
This chapter focuses on the emergence of recreational birdwatching, an activity of finding, noting, and recording birds by species, often with an emphasis on quantifiable personal achievement. Its practitioners are members of the urban bourgeoisie who were estranged from their forebears' vernacular knowledge yet sought out an experience of nature. Recreational birding grew out of ornithology. Through much of the twentieth century there was a continuum between leading ornithologists and gentlemen who wrote for local natural history journals. As ornithology was professionalized and as multitudes of people have developed a more casual interest in birds, the two traditions have moved apart. Recreational birdwatching in late twentieth-century Africa was distinguished from the rest of the world by being the pursuit of the Euro-African minority and expatriates.Less
This chapter focuses on the emergence of recreational birdwatching, an activity of finding, noting, and recording birds by species, often with an emphasis on quantifiable personal achievement. Its practitioners are members of the urban bourgeoisie who were estranged from their forebears' vernacular knowledge yet sought out an experience of nature. Recreational birding grew out of ornithology. Through much of the twentieth century there was a continuum between leading ornithologists and gentlemen who wrote for local natural history journals. As ornithology was professionalized and as multitudes of people have developed a more casual interest in birds, the two traditions have moved apart. Recreational birdwatching in late twentieth-century Africa was distinguished from the rest of the world by being the pursuit of the Euro-African minority and expatriates.
