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

Bibliographic Data

ID4516204
AuthorsSimon Schaffer (0000-0002-6653-0560, University of Cambridge, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume30
Issue2
Pages173-212
Publication date2017-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience in Context (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0269-8897 • E-ISSN: 1474-0664
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0269889717000102
PMID28699572
OpenAlexW2611296649
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited55

ArgumentMetrological 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 oforiental metrologydesigned 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

Ancient history · Late Antiquity · Metrology · Optics · Physics · Political science · Politics · Classics · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · History · History and Developments in Astronomy · History of Science and Medicine · Law

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