Desire, Marriage, and Overpopulation
The Sexual Lives of Insects in the Enlightenment (Tome 145, 7e Série, n°1-2, (2024)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4144602 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John Lidwell-Durnin (0000-0003-2062-7022, History Faculty, University of Exeter Exeter United Kingdom), Vincent Roy-Di Piazza (0000-0002-5352-7231, Humanities Division, University of Oxford Oxford United Kingdom) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 145 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 1-36 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-30 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Revue de Synthèse (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0035-1776 • E-ISSN: 1955-2343 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/19552343-14234052 |
| PMID | 38594019 |
| OpenAlex | W4391399614 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 8 |
During the eighteenth century, the discovery of sexual reproduction in insect species prompted the demise of spontaneous generation and new developments in natural history, theology, and political economy. The sexual lives of insects prompted debates on whether insects were governed by desire, free will, and even marital tendency. Fuelled by the democratisation of microscopy, early modern entomology took a new turn and breadth: the study of insects and of their sexual lives provided unexpected new insights into human sexuality, reproduction, and Malthusian fears of overpopulation. This article surveys the intellectual culture of entomology and natural history during the crucial decades when entomologists worked to quantify the reproductive capacities of insect species. Assessing the influences these entomological works had within political economy and theology, we argue that the sexual lives of insects − once analysed and delineated − influenced familiar ideological features of the intellectual landscape of the late Enlightenment, particularly in the theological philosophies of northern Europe and in the political economy of population in Britain
Biology · Enlightenment · Human sexuality · Ideology · Overpopulation · Political science · Politics · Population · Social science · Sociology · Theology · Animal and Plant Science Education · Demography · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Plant and animal studies
An inquiry into the principles of political oeconomy
The Moral Authority of Nature
Les voies de la richesse? La physiocratie en question (1760–1850)
History and Technology
Population Malthus
Visible Labour? Productive Forces and Imaginaries of Participation in European Insect Studies, ca. 1680–1810
Names and Numbers
| Highly cited | No |
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