A history of curiosity : the theory of travel, 1550-1800 / Justin Stagl.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stagl, Justin.

Series:

Studies in anthropology and history ; v. 13.

Studies in anthropology and history, 1055-2464 ; v. 13

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Anthropology--Methodology--History.

Anthropology.

Sociology--Methodology--History.

Sociology.

Sociology--Methodology.

History.

Travel--History.

Travel.

Anthropology--Methodology.

Physical Description:

viii, 344 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chur, Switzerland : Harwood Academic Publishers, [1995]

Summary:

The author's grasp of the vast, often obscure, but highly interesting body of literature which emerged in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries commands the attention of a wide readership outside purely academic boundaries. Stagl weaves together a series of separate studies, emphasizing links between the figures, the philosophies and the literature of early modern times; links which have previously only been suspected. In focusing on the "ars apodemica," or "art of travelling," a body of formal instruction on how to travel, observe and record the information gathered, Stagl demonstrates the origins of the characteristic inquisitive and systematizing spirit of the modern West. "A History of Curiosity" examines the early methodology of anthropological and social research from a critical-historical perspective. The two principal methods of research, travel and the questionnaire, are studied in the context of the social conditions and intellectual trends of early modern times.

Contents:

The methodizing of travel in the sixteenth century : a tale of three cities

Rerum memoria : early modern enquiries and documentation centres

Imagines mundi : allegories of the continents in the Baroque and the Englightenment

The man who called himself George Psalmanazar, or, The problems of the authenticity of ethnographic description

Josephinism and social research : the "patriotic traveller" of Count Leopold Berchtold

August Ludwig Schlözer and the study of mankind according to peoples

From the private to the sponsored traveller : Volney's reform of travel instruction and the French Revolution.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-329) and indexes.

ISBN:

3718653427

3718656213

OCLC:

32949666