ISBN:
9780226738611
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource (368 p)
,
24 halftones
Edition:
[Online-Ausgabe]
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als Schmalzer, Sigrid The people's Peking man
DDC:
569.90951
Keywords:
SCIENCE / General
;
China
;
Naturwissenschaften
;
Forschung
;
Kommunismus
;
Geschichte 1900-2000
;
China
;
Pekingmensch
;
Paläanthropologie
;
Forschung
;
Kommunismus
;
Geschichte 1900-2000
Abstract:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Conventions -- Introduction -- 1. “From ‘Dragon Bones’ to Scientific Research”: Peking Man and Popular Paleoanthropology in Pre-1949 China -- 2. “A United Front against Superstition”: Science Dissemination, 1940–1971 -- 3. “The Concept of Human: In Search of Human Identity, 1940–1971 -- 4. “Labor Created Science”: The Class Politics of Scientific Knowledge, 1940–1971 -- 5. “Presumptuous Guests Usurp the Hosts”: Dissemination and Participation, 1971–1978 -- 6. “Springtime for Science,” but What a Garden: Mystery, Superstition, and Fanatics in the Post-Máo Era -- 7 “From Legend to Science,” and Back Again? Bigfoot, Science, and the People in Post-Máo China -- 8. “Have We Dug at Our Ancestral Shrine?” Post-Máo Ethnic Nationalism and Its Limits -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index
Abstract:
In the 1920s an international team of scientists and miners unearthed the richest evidence of human evolution the world had ever seen: Peking Man. After the communist revolution of 1949, Peking Man became a prominent figure in the movement to bring science to the people. In a new state with twin goals of crushing “superstition” and establishing a socialist society, the story of human evolution was the first lesson in Marxist philosophy offered to the masses. At the same time, even Mao’s populist commitment to mass participation in science failed to account for the power of popular culture—represented most strikingly in legends about the Bigfoot-like Wild Man—to reshape ideas about human nature. The People’s Peking Man is a skilled social history of twentieth-century Chinese paleoanthropology and a compelling cultural—and at times comparative—history of assumptions and debates about what it means to be human. By focusing on issues that push against the boundaries of science and politics, The People’s Peking Man offers an innovative approach to modern Chinese history and the history of science
Note:
restricted access online access with authorization star
,
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
,
In English
DOI:
10.7208/9780226738611
URL:
https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780226738611
URL:
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
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