Non-elite women's production, consumption and use of 'natural knowledge' (science and technology), 1740-1810

非精英女性对“自然知识”（科学和技术）的生产、消费和使用，1740 年至 1810 年

• 批准号: 2605312
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of York
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2605312
• 关键词: Non; elite; women; production; consumption

Recent historiography of 18th century science and natural knowledge has concentrated on elite women and their cultivation of intellectual and scientific pursuits, like botany, as forms of "polite knowledge". Work on the staging of 'popular' science, Fyfe and Lightman (2007), Coppola (2016), has focussed on production and the producer rather than the audience or consumer. The result has been to render non-elite women's engagement with natural knowledge invisible. My PhD addresses this gap in scholarship, emulating the approach of Mukerji (2007) Hunter/Hutton (1997) and Leong (2018) who have uncovered 17th century women's everyday experience of science and technology, from household recipes to expertise in irrigation. My research reveals that between 1740 and 1810 provincial women of the middling sort acted as technicians in occupations rooted in scientific knowledge, as artisans aiding the production of scientific equipment and as consumers of scientific lectures. They were readers of articles on natural philosophy and pedagogical figures in children's scientific texts. I suggest this was driven by domestic economy, financial need, religious belief and self-improvement within the context of a colonial empire, rather than by "polite knowledge". My research draws on Golinski (1998) and Smith's (2017) constructivist work on knowledge making. It considers the interface between technological knowledge, founded in practical experience, and the codified knowledge of expert scientists and asks how women of the middling sort constructed and ordered natural knowledge within and beyond the household. In reconstructing women's experience I juxtapose printed, archival and material sources, including reports in the York and Newcastle Courants, periodicals like the Ladies Diary, popular texts like Newton for the Ladies (1738), account books and wills of silk dyers and brewers, individual diaries and material objects. Surveying the sources I have identified two towns of polite resort and their nearby minor centres as case studies: York, and Beverley and Bath and the rural manufacturing area of Taunton. Four chapters will use complementary methodologies:Chap. 1 reconstructs the social practice of women who produced and/or engaged with natural knowledge through their work as brewers, dyers and stocking frame knitters. It discerns their skills and the expectations of their knowledge, using wills bequeathing their equipment, trade and farm ledgers detailing the tools and process of dyeing and brewing, recipe books and 'how to manuals' including James Martin's An Essay on the Art of Dying (1791) and Joseph Collyer's The Parents and Guardian's Directory (1761) Chap. 2 examines women's participation in, and response to, lectures, demonstrations and spectacle. It reconstructs their experience, drawing on advertisements for events, newspaper reports, audience images, demonstration equipment, Benjamin Martin's lecture notes and the diary of a York woman I have identified as attending his presentations. It considers the role of science in self-fashioning and women's impact on the construction of popular science. Chap. 3 analyses women's engagement with natural knowledge through periodicals and texts, like Jane Marcet's Conversations in Chemistry (1805) designed to introduce science to women readers. It considers the reader imagined by this material and assesses the expectations and purpose of this knowledge, re-examining puzzles in the Ladies Diary for scientific rather than mathematical content and analysing scientific material in 'woman facing' periodicals. Chap. 4 assesses the level, purpose and function of scientific understanding in poor schools and its role in defining gender. It analyses curriculum content and the rhetoric of books created by women of the middling sort for poor children, e.g. Sarah Trimmer's An Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature (1780), and unpacks the concept of the female interrogator.

最近关于18世纪科学和自然知识的史学集中在精英女性和她们对知识和科学追求的培养上，比如植物学，作为一种“礼貌知识”的形式。科波拉(2016)、《费夫与莱特曼》(2007)、《科波拉》(2016)这部科普剧的上演一直聚焦于制作和制片人，而不是观众或消费者。其结果是，非精英女性对自然知识的接触变得看不见。我的博士学位解决了这一学术空白，效仿了Mukerji(2007)、Hunter/Hutton(1997)和Leong(2018)的方法，他们揭示了17世纪女性的日常科学和技术经验，从家庭食谱到灌溉专业知识。我的研究表明，在1740年至1810年间，中等水平的省级妇女在植根于科学知识的职业中担任技术员、协助生产科学设备的工匠和科学讲座的消费者。他们阅读有关自然哲学的文章和儿童科学课本中的教学人物。我认为，这是由殖民帝国背景下的国内经济、财政需求、宗教信仰和自我完善推动的，而不是由“礼貌知识”推动的。我的研究借鉴了Golinski(1998)和Smith(2017)关于知识创造的建构主义工作。它考虑了建立在实践经验基础上的技术知识和专家科学家的编纂知识之间的接口，并询问中等类型的妇女如何在家庭内外构建和排序自然知识。在重建女性经历的过程中，我比较了印刷品、档案和材料来源，包括纽约和纽卡斯尔宫廷的报道，像《女士日记》这样的期刊，像牛顿给女士们(1738)这样的流行文本，丝绸染发商和酿造商的账簿和遗嘱，个人日记和实物。通过对资料来源的调查，我确定了两个礼貌度假村城镇及其附近的次要中心作为案例研究：约克、贝弗利和巴斯，以及汤顿的农村制造业地区。有四章将使用互补的方法：第一章。1重建通过酿酒、染料和长袜边框编织工的工作生产和/或从事自然知识的妇女的社会实践。它识别他们的技能和对他们知识的期望，使用遗嘱遗留下来的设备、贸易和农场分类账，详细说明染色和酿造工具和过程的账本，食谱和《如何使用手册》，包括詹姆斯·马丁的《论死亡的艺术》(1791)和约瑟夫·科利尔的《父母和监护人指南》(1761)一章。2审查妇女参与和回应讲座、示威和场面的情况。它重建了他们的经历，利用了活动广告、报纸报道、观众形象、演示设备、本杰明·马丁的讲座笔记，以及我确认参加他演讲的一名纽约女子的日记。它考虑了科学在自我塑造中的作用以及女性对科普建设的影响。第一章。3通过期刊和文本分析女性与自然知识的接触，如简·马塞的《化学对话》(1805)，旨在向女性读者介绍科学。它考虑了这份材料所想象的读者，并评估了对这一知识的期望和目的，重新审视了《女性日记》中的谜题，寻找科学内容，而不是数学内容，并分析了《面向女性》期刊上的科学材料。第一章。4评估贫困学校的科学理解水平、目的和功能及其在界定性别方面的作用。它分析了课程内容和妇女为贫困儿童创作的中等类型书籍的修辞，例如萨拉·特里默的《自然知识简明入门》(1780)，并解开了女性审讯者的概念。