Science

Bibliographic Data

ID5155358
EditorsFelix Stein, Matei Candea, Hildegard Diemberger (0009-0004-7655-6520), Sian Lazar (0000-0002-0056-6333), Joel Robbins, Andrew Sanchez (0000-0001-8660-7505), Rupert Stasch
Year2016
Publication date2016-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueOpen Encyclopedia of Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2398-516X • E-ISSN: 2398-516X
PublisherCambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.29164/16science
OpenAlexW4256530557
LanguageEN
References cited14

Science' features twice in anthropology. On the one hand, science is an object of anthropological enquiry, in much the same way as ‘kinship’, ‘religion’, or ‘nationalism’. Anthropologists have studied scientific practices and practitioners ethnographically, and have traced the effects of scientific knowledge in other spheres of human activity. Alongside other scholars in ‘science and technology studies,’ anthropologists have raised questions such as: is scientific knowledge ‘socially constructed’? Does the ‘culture’ of scientists matter? What is objectivity? Is science a distinct kind of activity or domain? Are scientists in the business of describing the world, or transforming it? And is science ‘western’? In a number of these cases, anthropologists’ answers have been distinctive. On the other hand, for much of its history anthropology itself was understood as a science of society or culture - and continues to be so understood by some of its practitioners today. An anthropological look at science thus also involves turning the lens back onto anthropology itself, and examining it with the same tools we are using to inspect other scientific practices: how are the methods and concepts of anthropological knowledge production (culture, society, ethnography, the site, comparison) themselves put together? And how does applying these terms and methods to the strange object that is ‘science’ distort and transform them

Epistemology · Ethnography · Object (grammar · Objectivity (philosophy · Science studies · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of scientific knowledge · Anthropology · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access