Article ID: CBB001320858

“Involuntarily We Listen”: Hearing the Aurora Borealis in Nineteenth-Century Arctic Exploration and Science (2013)

unapi

AURORAS *HISTORY *AURORAL substorms *DISCOVERIES in geography -- History ARCTIC regions DISCOVERY & exploration NORTHWEST Passage CANADA, Northern People: FRANKLIN, John, Sir, 1786-1847 Abstract (English): In western science the Aurora Borealis has been a fiercely contested site of inquiry with little agreement as to its nature until the twentieth century. This essay surveys the history of auroral science up to the nineteenth century and then complicates the traditional indigenous/western dichotomy regarding supernatural or anomalous experiences by examining occasions when nineteenth-century Arctic explorers, scientists, and fur traders became enchanted by the Aurora Borealis. Drawing mainly on cases from the period of the British quest for the Northwest Passage through the (now Canadian) Arctic (c.1818-59), it demonstrates how scientific uncertainty allowed for occasions when Arctic explorers, scientists, and other travellers could self-consciously become enchanted by aurorae. If we work from the contention that cycles of re-enchantment, rather than sudden disenchantment constitute the modern ising process, then we can challenge the notion of a stable scientific observer of the Aurora Borealis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Authors & Contributors
Marthe Fjellestad
Amery, Fiona
Bessels, Emil
Spring, Ulrike
Birkenmajer, Krzysztof Ludwik
Byrne, Angela
Concepts
Travel; exploration
Scientific expeditions
Geography
Science and culture
Biographies
Sea travel
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
18th century
20th century
21st century
Places
Arctic regions
United States
Great Britain
France
Russia
Canada
Institutions
International Polar Year (1932-1933)
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
International Polar Year (1882-1883)
Rossiiskaia Akademiia Nauk
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