Thirty years of science studies: knowledge,society and the political

This article explores the last 30 years of science studies. It presents what the author takes to be some of the main questions raised in this field, the solutions most of its practitioners advocated, and what informed their intellectual and political attitudes. It tries to place the social studies of knowledge in a broader perspective, linking it to parallel changes in anthropology, sociology and history, and it questions its relations to social change on the one hand, and to the political on the other. It closes with a critique of some, often dominant, attitudes in the STS field.     

The emergence of Baltic Moorkultur: visions of scientific-technological mastery of peatlands in the age of great social change, 1850–1914

ABSTRACT

This article looks at the imaginaries of progress through technology and new activities by tracing the emergence of Baltic Moorkultur in Estonia and Livonia from the 1850s to the early 1910s. Baltic Moorkultur, a set of modern drainage and peat extraction techniques, has been viewed as part of a modernisation process and evolving visions of future, which touched the identity of Baltic German landowners, scientists and entrepreneurs. General reasons for an impetus for the large-scale reclamation of peatlands were the growth of population, economic liberalisation, growing demand for fuels and the fact that the basis of manorial economy gradually crumbled and led to increasing urge to modernise its source of livelihood. Baltic Moorkultur can be thought as a high-tech response of that time to the exploitation of peatlands. This article explains why it became adopted and how it altered the appraisal of environments that had been perceived as suboptimal.     

Science,industry and the colonial state: a shift from a German- to a Dutch-controlled cinchona and quinine cartel (1880–1920)

This study shows how control over delicately balanced supply chains from raw material to the final product shifted from one national industry to another. By 1920, Dutch cinchona producers and quinine manufacturers dominated the international cartel that controlled the worldwide production and distribution of quinine (an antimalarial), quinine sulphate (a semi-finished product) and cinchona (the raw material). Twenty years earlier, however, this cartel had been controlled by the German pharmaceutical industry. How can we understand the shift of power in the world’s first pharmaceutical cartel? We argue that the internal shift of power was largely the result of the following three factors: a global industrial laboratory revolution; the vertical integration of a transoceanic network of cinchona producers, quinine manufacturers, (colonial) scientists and state officials across the Dutch Empire; and Germany’s economic isolation during the First World War.     

The Myth of Reserpine-Induced Depression: Role in the Historical Development of the Monoamine Hypothesis

For five decades it has been generally accepted that reserpine, an antihypertensive and antipsychotic drug, causes depression. The discovery that reserpine depletes brain monoamines was an important factor in the development of the monoamine hypothesis of depression, and it continues to be widely cited in support of this hypothesis. The present paper argues that, contrary to prevailing belief, reserpine is not depressogenic. The reason for perpetuation of this myth is reluctance to discard the monoamine hypothesis. This hypothesis ushered the modern biochemical paradigm into psychiatry and is still of great importance. It serves as a heuristic to guide research, it enhances psychiatry’s prestige, and it helps to validate and promote drug therapy for depression and other mental disorders.     

Descartes and the pineal gland in animals: A frequent misinterpretation

Abstract

Rene Descartes presented a number of reasons for his choice of the pineal gland as a logical place for the soul to interact with the physical machinery of the body. It is often stated that one of his reasons was that be believed animals do not have pineal glands, whereas humans alone possess a soul and this small structure. This is a misinterpretation of Descartes. The philosopher knew that barnyard and other animals possess pineal glands, having seen this with his own eyes. His point was that the pineal is unique in humans only because of a special function — acting as the seat for the rational soul.     

Ivane Beritashvili: Founder of Physiology and Neuroscience in Georgia

This paper is dedicated to one of the outstanding scientists of the twentieth century—Ivane Beritashvili. He was a Georgian physiologist who graduated from St. Petersburg University and worked under the supervision of N. Wedensky. He founded the Department of Physiology and the Institute of Physiology at the University of Tbilisi, Georgia. Among his numerous contributions was the discovery of the rhythmical course of reciprocal inhibition in spinal reflexes, the first demonstration of the excitatory and inhibitory reactions in the brain stem neuropil. But Beritashvili's most significant contribution was the discovery of the mediation of animal psychoneural behavior by image-driven memory.     

On the Supernatural and Extraordinary Experience: Multiple Views and a Call for Synthesis

This review describes four disparate books that relate to the anthropology of religion. Each has a distinctive approach, ranges over a wide subject matter, and makes provocative claims. In summarizing and critiquing them most attention is paid to their perspectives on the natural and the supernatural. This leads to consideration of related work in the anthropology of extraordinary experience. It is argued that while our different approaches to the supernatural may reflect deep epistemological divisions within anthropology and, more broadly, in society, a form of semiotics that takes emergent complexity into consideration does provide opportunities for consensus.     

Many voices: Medical anthropologists explore the meaning of health,illness, and cure

Franz Boas organized and shaped American anthropology. No academic discipline of similar scope owed so much to just one person. Within three decades of coming to the United States from Germany he had trained the anthropologists who established its place within the universities and redirected its tone and ethos as well as its theories. The biographies under review help us understand the background, aims, and drive of the man. We shall consider, in particular, the impact he had on the political and ethical tone of the field, the prevalence of women in it, and the importance of his scientific background.     

Pop Anthropology,With Little Anthropology or Pop

Unlike other scientific fields, anthropology popularizations are as likely as not to be written by scientists who are not themselves experts in the subject. This is because the subject, the scientific knowledge of our origin and patterns of bio-cultural diversity—or more broadly, who we are and where we come from—is the source of our culturally authoritative origin myths, and consequently of broad general interest in and of itself. But anthropology popularizations come with the responsibility not only to get the facts and theory correct, but as well to understand the history and embedded politics in the stories themselves.     

COMPUTERS AS CARTOGRAPHIC TOOLS

Abstract

In their exploration of an alternative approach to large historical databases, the authors aim to bridge the gap between the anticipations regarding Web-based collaborative work and the prevailing practices and academic culture in social and economic history. Until now, the collaboratory model has been derived from examples in the natural sciences. Moreover, publications on collaboratories in the social sciences and humanities revolved primarily around the potential of this model and were rarely based on actual research practices. In this article, the authors report on practices, risks, and opportunities of collaboratories in the field of social and economic history. The collaboratory model is a feasible alternative for the creation of large historical databases, but the practical challenges of such an enterprise are greater than generally assumed. In the concluding section, the authors formulate a number of guidelines for scholars interested in setting up collaboratories.