Article ID: CBB163742684

“The Disadvantages of a Defective Education”: Identity, Experiment and Persuasion in the Natural History of the Salmon and Parr Controversy, C. 1825–1850 (2019)

unapi

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.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB163742684/

Similar Citations

Article Matthew Hayes; Noah Morritt; (2020)
Michael W. Burke-Gaffney and the UFO Debate in Atlantic Canada, 1947-1969 (/isis/citation/CBB417665220/)

Article Forbes, Curtis; (2011)
Science and Public Controversy: Editor's Introduction (/isis/citation/CBB001220690/)

Article Lightman, Bernard; (2011)
Periodicals and Controversy (/isis/citation/CBB001220691/)

Article Kusukawa, Sachiko; (2000)
The Historia Piscium (1686) (/isis/citation/CBB000111544/)

Article Joris Mercelis; (2020)
The scientist and the advertisement: Reklamegutachten in imperial Germany (/isis/citation/CBB621920403/)

Book Johnson, Kristin; (2012)
Ordering Life: Karl Jordan and the Naturalist Tradition (/isis/citation/CBB001210068/)

Book Saunders, Brian; (2012)
Discovery of Australia's Fishes: A History of Australian Ichthyology to 1930 (/isis/citation/CBB001211155/)

Article Qian, Xue-mei; Li, Bin; (2002)
Relevant Record of the Blind Fish in Yi Ban Lu (/isis/citation/CBB000340071/)

Book Carin Berkowitz; Bernard Lightman; (2017)
Science Museums in Transition: Cultures of Display in Nineteenth-Century Britain and America (/isis/citation/CBB922082803/)

Article Regal, Brian; (2012)
Richard Owen and the Sea-Serpent (/isis/citation/CBB001210166/)

Book Liz Sevcenko; (2022)
Public History for a Post-Truth Era: Fighting Denial through Memory Movements (/isis/citation/CBB650942848/)

Book Fletcher, Ronald; (1991)
Science, Ideology, and the Media: The Cyril Burt Scandal (/isis/citation/CBB001422097/)

Article Keller, Evelyn Fox; (2011)
What Are Climate Scientists to Do? (/isis/citation/CBB001220693/)

Authors & Contributors
Lightman, Bernard V.
Yuko Takigawa
Noah Morritt
Sterba, Thomas
Sherra Murphy
Liz Sevcenko
Concepts
Public understanding of science
Fishes
Natural history
Authority of science
Science and society
Controversies and disputes
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
21st century
20th century, early
18th century
20th century, late
Places
Germany
Great Britain
Danube river
Dublin (Ireland)
United States
Russia
Institutions
Dublin Natural History Museum
Royal Dublin Society
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris
Institut de France, Paris
Great Britain. Royal Navy
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment