“The Disadvantages of a Defective Education”: Identity, Experiment and Persuasion in the Natural History of the Salmon and Parr Controversy, C. 1825–1850 (2019)
During the second quarter of the nineteenth century, an argument raged about the identity of a small freshwater fish: was the parr a distinct species, or merely the young of the salmon? This “Parr Controversy” concerned both fishermen and ichthyologists. A central protagonist in the controversy was a man of ambiguous social and scientific status: a gamekeeper from Scotland named John Shaw. This paper examines Shaw’s heterogeneous practices and the reception of his claims by naturalists as he struggled to find a footing on the “gradient of attributed competence” (Rudwick 1985). The case demonstrates the context-specific nature of expert-lay boundaries and identities and explores a range of material and linguistic resources available for negotiating them. Arguing for a view of Shaw’s trajectory as simultaneously one of being a “practical man” and of becoming a naturalist, the paper explores both the permeability of social hierarchies in knowledge production and their effective role in the regulation of competency.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Thomas Sterba;
(2018)
Die Süßwasserfische des Karl von Meidinger: Mit naturhistorischen Illustrationen aus vier Jahrhunderten
Article
Forbes, Curtis;
(2011)
Science and Public Controversy: Editor's Introduction
Article
Matthew Hayes;
Noah Morritt;
(2020)
Michael W. Burke-Gaffney and the UFO Debate in Atlantic Canada, 1947-1969
Chapter
Yuko Takigawa;
(2016)
Japanese Ichthyological Objects and Knowledge Gained in Contact Zones by the Krusenstern Expedition
Article
Kusukawa, Sachiko;
(2000)
The Historia Piscium (1686)
Article
Anderson, William D., Jr.;
(2012)
John Edwards Holbrook's Illustrations of Fishes in the Bibliothèque Centrale, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris
Article
Lightman, Bernard;
(2011)
Periodicals and Controversy
Article
Joris Mercelis;
(2020)
The scientist and the advertisement: Reklamegutachten in imperial Germany
Article
Orr, Mary;
(2014)
Fish with a Different Angle: The Fresh-Water Fishes of Great Britain by Mrs Sarah Bowdich (1791--1856)
Book
Saunders, Brian;
(2012)
Discovery of Australia's Fishes: A History of Australian Ichthyology to 1930
Article
Qian, Xue-mei;
Li, Bin;
(2002)
Relevant Record of the Blind Fish in Yi Ban Lu
Article
Maienschein, Jane;
(2011)
Why Do Stem Cells Create Such Public Controversy?
Article
Varughese, Shiju Sam;
(2011)
Media and Science in Disaster Contexts: Deliberations on Earthquakes in the Regional Press in Kerala, India
Article
Melanie Leenen;
Bart Penders;
(October 2016)
Dissident Dietary Credibility: The Power of Discontent
Book
Liz Sevcenko;
(2022)
Public History for a Post-Truth Era: Fighting Denial through Memory Movements
Article
Keller, Evelyn Fox;
(2011)
What Are Climate Scientists to Do?
Book
Fletcher, Ronald;
(1991)
Science, Ideology, and the Media: The Cyril Burt Scandal
Book
Johnson, Kristin;
(2012)
Ordering Life: Karl Jordan and the Naturalist Tradition
Book
Lee McIntyre;
(2021)
How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason
Book
Andrew Jewett;
(2020)
Science under Fire: Challenges to Scientific Authority in Modern America
Be the first to comment!