A Review of African Eve Effect

I find this an intriguing paper. However I am not sure whether I agree with its main tenets, or whether I consider them to be as important as its author pretends them to be. It makes for interesting reading in the way in which it covers known terrain in new shoes, and starts from unusual perspectives.     

The African Eve Effect in Science

The Matthew and Matilda Effects in science were coined in 1968 (Robert K. Merton) and in 1993 (Margaret W. Rossiter) respectively, as tools to analyse the reward systems of science. By proposing the African Eve Effect in science as a third effect, the original scope for analysis of these systems is broadened from the social structure of science to the anthropological dimension of science. Similarly, the ??psychosocial processes?? that were considered as affecting the reward systems (Merton, Science 159:56?C63, 1968) are extended to include discursive practices. The African Eve Effect refers to the scientific notion of the ??African Eve?? (or mitochondrial (mtDNA) Eve), a concept put forward by scientists to designate the genetic mother of all modern humans. Three discursive conventions constitute the African Eve Effect and together shape patterns of the distribution of recognition for scientific work: projecting imaginative geographies of otherness onto the frontiers of science; collecting, transporting and enframing material and ideas according to a Western epistemological order; and ??evolutionising?? nature and the human in science. The objective of this paper is to specify and illustrate an experimental tool for analysing the entanglement of the reward system in science with culturally fashioned imaginaries and agendas.     

Review of African Eve Effect by Aant Elzinga

Alexandra Hofm?nner’s paper is stimulating and provocative. For science and technology studies (STS) it importantly reintroduces a lost dimension, philosophical anthropology 1968; in a critique of Western science, Jürgen Habermas of the Frankfurt School retrieved this dimension and distinguished three “knowledge constitutive interests” whereof the “technical instrumental” associated an empirical-positivist ideal pinned on measurement and control. Such epistemic categories however soon fell outside mainstream science studies, even if Andrew Feenberg—a student of Herbert Marcuse—persistently pursues a broad critical theory of technology.     

Letter to the Movement: Antiwar Strategies on the Eve of Destruction and Occupation

Author's Intro: This is a two‐part essay on antiwar strategy and tactics. The first part was finished a few hours after George Bush's TV announcement that the US would invade and begin bombing Iraq. The second part was finished in mid‐May 2003, as the US occupation forces formally announced their colonization of Iraq, with cracker Tommy Franks goose‐stepping around Iraq as the latest jewel in the American empire. The question remains for the whole world, especially for those of us living in what is more appropriately named than ever “the belly of the beast”: What are we going to do about the United States?     

明治前夕日本近代化政治思想的萌芽

明治前夕的日本,在内忧外患的环境下,产生了近代化政治思想的萌芽。日本社会有识之士通过各种方式宣传人际政治关系的自由平等,为即将诞生的新国家提出近代化政治体制构想。这种新思想萌芽尽管带有很大的局限性,但却为维新后日本大规模宣传近代化政治思想的高潮奠定了基础,并对近代化政治体制形成产生了巨大影响。     

退出印度前夕的英国殖民者与印度王公的消失

殖民地印度时期,在南亚次大陆上分布着560多个土邦。二战后英国工党政府背弃了以往保守党的土邦政策,采取了理论上继续支持王公、现实中则背弃王公的两面性政策。代表英王的副王和政治部支持王公拥有成立自治领的权力,试图以此为筹码为王公的未来争取更多的利益,而其真实态度则是鼓励宗主国从土邦撤离,要求王公加入未来的新政府。在印巴分治的前夜,英属印度政府成立土邦部,出台《加入协定》,采取了威逼利诱的两手策略。宗主国的政策转变、政策的两面性、对土邦态度的暖昧性和土邦策略的两手性使王公被迫加入了新成立的自治领,致使印度王公消失。     

人文北京 典藏世界 写在第二届北京·中国文物艺术品国际博览会开幕前夕

自公元1153年金海陵王将燕京改为中都城,北京便成为离我们这个时代最近的封建帝都了。即使从忽必烈营造起一座闻名世界的元大都城开始,算来也725年矣。作为数百年的首善之区,＂四方之所观仰＂,亦理当人文荟萃,物华地灵。     

建党前夕马克思主义传播的历史解释方法——对《马克思还原》的分析与解读

中国共产党建立前夕的马克思主义传播,一方面需要尽快确立马克思主义作为政党指导思想的地位,以便用于中国革命实践;一方面由于对马克思主义和中国国情的认识尚不深刻,存在着不同的解释.历史批判和比较的方法成为主要的解释工具,其结果正宗马克思主义必须通过还原历史来判定,理论教条又反过来规范对于历史的解释.历史解释方法是马克思主义在中国传播的重要特征,值得进一步深入研究.