Classification conundrums: categorizing chimeras and enacting species preservation
Classification conundrums: categorizing chimeras and enacting species preservation
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DOI：
10.1007/s11186-009-9103-7
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发表时间：
2010-03-01
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Friese, Carrie
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Friese, Carrie
社会学家对这一学科提出了挑战，要求他们在分析中考虑并纳入生物因素。响应这一号召，这篇文章提出了一个问题，即嵌合体，一种特别令人困惑的生物有机体，是如何在濒危物种保护和动物园的相关地点被正式归类的。基于对克隆濒危动物的努力的定性研究，我认为仅凭生物学不能决定这些跨物种生物的分类。相反，对嵌合体进行分类需要隐喻性的、对更熟悉的实体的示意性引用。在这里，文化和生物学是分类的工具，这对保护实践和濒危野生动物的重要性产生了影响。借助文化社会学，我认为分类立场代表了在话语阐述中解释意义和行为之间关系的中介空间。在科学技术社会学的基础上，我展示了将生物学理解为先验因素的认识论局限性。
Sociologists have challenged the discipline to account for and incorporate biological factors in their analyses. Heeding this call, this article asks how chimeras, a particularly puzzling biological organism, are being officially classified in the interrelated sites of endangered species preservation and the zoo. Based on a qualitative study of endeavors to clone endangered animals, I contend that biology alone cannot determine the classification of these interspecies organisms. Rather, categorizing chimeras requires metaphoric, schematic references to more familiar entities. Here culture and biology are tools for classification, which has consequences for preservation practices and the materiality of endangered wildlife. Drawing on the sociology of culture, I show that positions on classification represent an intermediary space for interpreting the relationship between meaning and action in discourse elaboration. Building on the sociology of science and technology, I show the epistemological limitations of understanding the biological as an a priori factor.