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Haunting Biology: Science and Indigeneity in Australia

AUTHOR Kowal, Emma
PUBLISHER Duke University Press (11/17/2023)
PRODUCT TYPE Paperback (Paperback)

Description
In Haunting Biology Emma Kowal recounts the troubled history of Western biological studies of Indigenous Australians and asks how we now might see contemporary genomics, especially that conducted by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scientists. Kowal illustrates how the material persistence of samples over decades and centuries folds together the fates of different scientific methodologies. Blood, bones, hair, comparative anatomy, human biology, physiology, and anthropological genetics all haunt each other across time and space, together with the many racial theories they produced and sustained. The stories Kowal tells feature a variety of ghostly presences: a dead anatomist, a fetishized piece of hair hidden away in a war trunk, and an elusive white Indigenous person. By linking this history to contemporary genomics and twenty-first-century Indigeneity, Kowal outlines the fraught complexities, perils, and potentials of studying Indigenous biological difference in the twenty-first century.
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Product Format
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9781478025375
ISBN-10: 1478025379
Binding: Paperback or Softback (Trade Paperback (Us))
Content Language: English
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Page Count: 264
Carton Quantity: 42
Product Dimensions: 6.00 x 0.60 x 9.00 inches
Weight: 0.85 pound(s)
Feature Codes: Bibliography, Index, Maps, Illustrated
Country of Origin: US
Subject Information
BISAC Categories
Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social
Social Science | Cultural & Ethnic Studies - Australian & Oceanian Studies
Social Science | Indigenous Studies
Dewey Decimal: 305.899
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023003957
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In Haunting Biology Emma Kowal recounts the troubled history of Western biological studies of Indigenous Australians and asks how we now might see contemporary genomics, especially that conducted by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scientists. Kowal illustrates how the material persistence of samples over decades and centuries folds together the fates of different scientific methodologies. Blood, bones, hair, comparative anatomy, human biology, physiology, and anthropological genetics all haunt each other across time and space, together with the many racial theories they produced and sustained. The stories Kowal tells feature a variety of ghostly presences: a dead anatomist, a fetishized piece of hair hidden away in a war trunk, and an elusive white Indigenous person. By linking this history to contemporary genomics and twenty-first-century Indigeneity, Kowal outlines the fraught complexities, perils, and potentials of studying Indigenous biological difference in the twenty-first century.
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Paperback