Hum Core | Spring 2011 | Unit 2

Societies in Conflict

Humans, the Natural World and the Shifting Boundaries Between Them

Lecture 10. Colonial Contexts of Knowledge Acquisition

Key vocabulary terms underlined

Goals

The mutual development of colonialism and science

“Western” pursuit of knowledge

Compare projects of Kolb, Sparrman, Bleek

Interpreting primary sources: specific comparisons

“Change over time” as historian’s mantra

A brief history of science (in Western Europe)

Increasing specialization of knowledge

Natural history

Botany and zoology (gardens, herbariums, menageries)

Linguistics, folklore, ethnography

Sustained theme: interplay between nature, divinity, and knowledge

A brief history of European expansion (in Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions)

Observation, documentation, and sailing technologies

Astronomy, cartography, and navigation

Sites of encounter

Landfall, trading posts, settlements

Collecting treasures

Commodities, people (labor), specimens

South African encounters

One site among many

Specific attractions and accessibility

Peter Kolb’s ethnography

Anders Sparrman’s natural history

Wilhelm Bleek’s linguistics

• Relevant recent news stories: origins of language in Africa, NY Times; language change as historical evidence (and biology v. culture debate), LA Times

NB: In the full body of their work, Kolb, Sparrman and Bleek cross “disciplinary” boundaries, writing about geography, plants, animals and people. The sources selected for this class represent some specific differences, but should not be presumed to characterize each writer’s total approach to describing and trying to make sense of what they saw in South Africa.