Article ID: CBB645284848

Oriental Metrology and the Politics of Antiquity in Nineteenth-Century Survey Sciences (2017)

unapi

Metrological techniques to establish shared quantitative measures have often been seen as signs of rational modernization. The cases considered here show instead the close relation of such techniques with antiquarian and revivalist programs under imperial regimes. Enterprises in survey sciences in Egypt in the wake of the French invasion of 1798 and in India during the East India Company's revenue surveys involved the promotion of a new kind of oriental metrology designed to represent colonizers’ measures as restorations of ancient values to be applied to current systems of survey and measurement. Surveyors’ practice and hardware help clarify the significance of the complex historical and political functions of scientific standards. The balance of the paper discusses the survey work of later nineteenth-century indigenous Egyptian astronomers at a conjuncture of major economic and political dislocation to explore the various versions of antiquity at stake in these metrological programs.

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Authors & Contributors
Sarkar, Oyndrila
Topiwala, Harshad
Ting Chen
E. Bennett Jones
Lingfeng Lü
Kumar, Siva Prashant
Concepts
Colonialism
Surveying
Science and politics
Traditional knowledge
Astronomy
Science and economics
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century, early
20th century
17th century
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
Places
India
Egypt
China
Citizen Band Potawatomi Indian Tribe of Oklahoma
South Asia
Hellenistic world
Institutions
East India Company (English)
Royal Society of London
Jagellonian Univ.
British East India Company
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