Articulating Dinosaurs

A Political Anthropology

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Nature, Animals, Dinosaurs, Science, Earth Sciences, Palaeontology, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Anthropology
Cover of the book Articulating Dinosaurs by Brian Noble, University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Brian Noble ISBN: 9781442621329
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division Publication: August 12, 2016
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Brian Noble
ISBN: 9781442621329
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Publication: August 12, 2016
Imprint:
Language: English

In this remarkable interdisciplinary study, anthropologist Brian Noble traces how dinosaurs and their natural worlds are articulated into being by the action of specimens and humans together. Following the complex exchanges of palaeontologists, museums specialists, film- and media-makers, science fiction writers, and their diverse publics, he witnesses how fossil remains are taken from their partial state and re-composed into astonishingly precise, animated presences within the modern world, with profound political consequences. 

Articulating Dinosaurs examines the resurrecting of two of the most iconic and gendered of dinosaurs.  First Noble traces the emergence of Tyrannosaurus rex (the “king of the tyrant lizards”) in the early twentieth-century scientific, literary, and filmic cross-currents associated with the American Museum of Natural History under the direction of palaeontologist and eugenicist Henry Fairfield Osborn.  Then he offers his detailed ethnographic study of the multi-media, model-making, curatorial, and laboratory preparation work behind the Royal Ontario Museum’s ground-breaking 1990s exhibit of Maiasaura (the “good mother lizard”).  Setting the exhibits at the AMNH and the ROM against each other, Noble is able to place the political natures of T. rex and Maiasaura into high relief and to raise vital questions about how our choices make a difference in what comes to count as “nature.”  An original and illuminating study of science, culture, and museums, Articulating Dinosaurs is a remarkable look at not just how we visualize the prehistoric past, but how we make it palpable in our everyday lives.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In this remarkable interdisciplinary study, anthropologist Brian Noble traces how dinosaurs and their natural worlds are articulated into being by the action of specimens and humans together. Following the complex exchanges of palaeontologists, museums specialists, film- and media-makers, science fiction writers, and their diverse publics, he witnesses how fossil remains are taken from their partial state and re-composed into astonishingly precise, animated presences within the modern world, with profound political consequences. 

Articulating Dinosaurs examines the resurrecting of two of the most iconic and gendered of dinosaurs.  First Noble traces the emergence of Tyrannosaurus rex (the “king of the tyrant lizards”) in the early twentieth-century scientific, literary, and filmic cross-currents associated with the American Museum of Natural History under the direction of palaeontologist and eugenicist Henry Fairfield Osborn.  Then he offers his detailed ethnographic study of the multi-media, model-making, curatorial, and laboratory preparation work behind the Royal Ontario Museum’s ground-breaking 1990s exhibit of Maiasaura (the “good mother lizard”).  Setting the exhibits at the AMNH and the ROM against each other, Noble is able to place the political natures of T. rex and Maiasaura into high relief and to raise vital questions about how our choices make a difference in what comes to count as “nature.”  An original and illuminating study of science, culture, and museums, Articulating Dinosaurs is a remarkable look at not just how we visualize the prehistoric past, but how we make it palpable in our everyday lives.

More books from University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division

Cover of the book The Comedy of Entropy by Brian Noble
Cover of the book The Myth of Green Marketing by Brian Noble
Cover of the book Thomas Hill Green and the Development of Liberal-Democratic Thought by Brian Noble
Cover of the book The Jewish Emergence from Powerlessness by Brian Noble
Cover of the book The Persons Case by Brian Noble
Cover of the book Forest Regeneration in Ontario by Brian Noble
Cover of the book Our Intellectual Strength and Weakness by Brian Noble
Cover of the book Broadcasting Policy in Canada, Second Edition by Brian Noble
Cover of the book Joe Salsberg by Brian Noble
Cover of the book Memoirs and Reflections by Brian Noble
Cover of the book Water without Borders? by Brian Noble
Cover of the book Cinderella Army by Brian Noble
Cover of the book The Politics of Race by Brian Noble
Cover of the book Pascal the Philosopher by Brian Noble
Cover of the book Nova Scotia by Brian Noble
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy