Thesis ID: CBB001562209

Breeding True: Information Processing and the Growth of Genetic Reasoning in America, 1880--1910 (2002)

unapi

Thurtle, Phillip (Author)


Stanford University
Lenoir, Timothy


Publication Date: 2002
Edition Details: Advisor: Lenoir, Timothy
Physical Details: 302 pp.
Language: English

Whereas most studies of the rise of genetics have focused on concepts such as trait and gene and on key experiments that led to the rise of genetics, this dissertation asks what were the cultural changes that occurred in the last half of the nineteenth century that allowed biologists and animal and plant breeders to think of heredity in terms of unit characters? It claims that important changes in social mores, in experiences of space and time, and in transportation, communication, and information processing practices contributed to a new way of conceiving of the potential of organisms. It makes this claim by detailing the conceptual world, or episteme, of a number of characters who witnessed the rise of genetic science but felt more comfortable working within the natural history tradition. Foremost among these is the naturalist, eugenicist, and educator David Starr Jordan (and his circle of friends, collaborators, and correspondents). It then contrasts this older episteme with the episteme of those undertaking large-scale breeding experiments. What emerges from this study is the observation that many hereditary scientists conceived of and used informational technologies to navigate cultural geographic space differently from natural historians. Under this conception, genetic about the functional capacities of organisms in an industrial economy.

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Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 63 (2003): 3698. UMI order no. 3067962.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001562209/

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Authors & Contributors
Wood, Roger J.
Sheldon, Myrna Perez
Fabrizio Rufo
Brem, Gottfried
Lidwell-Durnin, John
Lettow, Susanne
Concepts
Heredity
Genetics
Breeding
Biology
Mendelism
Evolution
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
21st century
20th century, early
18th century
Places
United States
Great Britain
England
France
Paris (France)
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