1,720,998 research outputs found
Introduction: Otherwhere Ethnography, a Means to Reimagine Contemporary Space Exploration
No full textAn introduction to the field of outer space studies is provided by means of a selection of “otherwhere ethnographies,” fine-grained accounts of how space exploration is being reconfigured in an age in which major nation-states are no longer its only prime movers. A key aim is to show that off-Earth enterprises do not necessarily have to be conceived of along the lines of the scientistic, military–industrial, and neocolonial templates espoused by Silicon Valley’s self-proclaimed visionaries. Space Age modernity can also be thought otherwise—indeed, it is already being thought otherwise. Otherwhere ethnography opens a new pathway to grasp the ongoing mutation of the very idea of “exploration.” What transpires, in the end, is the distinctive conceptual provinciality of current fixations with rocketry and the extraterrestrial more generally
Styles of Contemporary Space Exploration: Columbian and Vespuccian Modes of Researching Alien Worlds
No full textContemporary space exploration can be described in terms of two key styles of scientific reasoning, which are equally truthful but incommensurable. It is argued that the central problem of latter-day planetary scientists, astronomers, and astrobiologists is much the same as the metaphysical quandary in which the Renaissance navigators who first sailed across the Atlantic found themselves: How do I conceive of the boundary that I am seeking to traverse? This chapter demonstrates that the basic conceptual options of 21st-century space scientists and of 15th-century seafarers are essentially the same. What is now known as “the interplanetary medium” and what was then known as “the ocean sea” have more in common than meets the eye. By pluralizing outer space, this chapter ultimately unpacks a defining yet rarely examined feature of modern thought: the fact that moderns believe in outer space but—oddly enough—not in outer time
The Chachi and Their Uneasy Relationship with Archaeology
No full textThe central question of this chapter is: to what extent is the notion of ‘ancient’ itself relatively new? Let me put my cards on the table straight away. I will suggest that a distinction such as that between ‘old’ and ‘new’ is actually a fairly recent phenomenon. To be sure, it has been spread with considerable success all over the world, also among so-called indigenous people. Archaeologists, ‘scientists of the ancient’, have played a crucial role in this. Arguably, they are among the prime disseminators of the idea of ‘the old’ or ‘the ancient’ since at least two centuries. That specific role of archaeologists is often overlooked, for it is commonly assumed that conceptions of what is bygone are similar (if only roughly) all over the world. We could say that so-called indigenous people are taken to be ‘ethnoarchaeologists’, which in this context simply means that they are supposed to make a basic distinction between what is old and what is not. This chapter considers the (at first sight) improbable possibility that such a distinction does not or, at least, did not exist. It takes an Amerindian example as its starting point: I will draw on my research among the Chachi Indians of Esmeraldas, Ecuador
Familiarizing the Extraterrestrial / Making our Planet Alien
Full text linkA growing number of researchers in the social sciences and the environmental humanities have begun to focus on the wider universe and how it is apprehended by modern cosmology. Today the extraterrestrial has become part of the remit of anthropologists, philosophers, historians, geographers, scholars in science and technology studies, and artistic researchers, among others. And there is an emerging consensus that astronomers and other natural scientists—contrary to a common prejudice—are never simply depicting or describing the cosmos “just as it is.” Their research is always characterized by a specific aesthetic style and by a particular “cosmic imagination,” as some have called it. Scientific knowledge of the universe is based on skilled judgments rather than on direct, unmediated perception. It is science, but it is also an art. This special section focuses on two at first sight contradictory aspects of this cosmic imagination. On the one hand, there is a distinctive move toward viewing the extraterrestrial in familiar terms and comprehending it by means of conceptual frameworks that we, earthlings, are accustomed to. On the other hand, there is a tendency to understand our own planet in unfamiliar terms, especially in astrobiology, where so-called analog sites and “extreme environments” provide clues about alien planets.© 2017 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0
The Restaurant at the End of the World
No full textAstronauts have been successful in cultivating a range of edible plants aboard the International Space Station. The narratives that accompany these experiments are marked by optimism for the “future of humanity”; the hope and hype of expanding human civilization off-world; psychological well-being; and, increasingly, sustainable sources of nutrients for the Artemis missions to the moon and beyond to Mars. This chapter explores such narratives and the meaning that people derive from these plants as representative forms of life and utopia. It challenges these narratives, exploring a more subtle, yet equally powerful sentiment of ruin and eschatology. Borrowing from anthropological frameworks on utopia, science, and the Anthropocene, the chapter extends beyond outer space to ask: As the Earth heats and ecological catastrophe abounds, what are the emergent forms of plant–human relations in the end of times, and what is being consumed at the restaurant at the end of the world
Astrobiology and the Ultraviolet World
Full text link© 2017 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
Otherwhere Ethnography: An Introduction to Outer Space Studies
No full textWhat happens when contemporary space exploration outgrows Space Age modernity? In this volume, a collective of social scientists and humanities scholars provides an introduction to the emerging field of outer space studies. This is done by means of "otherwhere ethnography," richly detailed accounts of how space research and space enterprises are being rethought in an age where extraterrestrial exploration is no longer the monopoly of a handful of superpowers. While many off-Earth endeavours remain embedded within characteristically modern forms of thought—scientism, productivism, extractivism, (neo-)colonialism—there is also an emerging trend to move away from such ingrained conceptual frameworks. If one looks beyond the much-hyped projects of billionaire space gurus and their coterie of rocket-obsessed followers, one notices that Space Age modernity can also be thought otherwise, and that the very idea of "exploration" has already mutated into something else. Outer space studies can be envisaged as the antenna that seeks to capture this momentous, ongoing mutation
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