Six legs better : a cultural history of myrmecology / Charlotte Sleigh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sleigh, Charlotte.

Contributor:

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Series:

Animals, history, culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ants--Research--History.

Ants.

Ants--Research.

History.

Physical Description:

viii, 302 pages, 6 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.

Summary:

Charlotte Sleigh uses specific representations of ants within the field of entomology from the late nineteenth to mid twentieth centuries to explore the broader role of metaphors in science and their often unpredictable translations. Marking the centenary of the coining of "myrmecology" -- the study of ants -- as a science, Six Legs Better demonstrates the remarkable historical role played by ants as a node where notions of animal, human, and automaton intersect.

Contents:

Part I Psychological Ants 21

1 Evolutionary Myrmecology and the Natural History of the Human Mind 23

2 A (Non-) Disciplinary Context for Evolutionary Myrmecology 38

Part II Sociological Ants 63

3 From Psychology to Sociology 65

4 The Brave New World of Myrmecology 82

5 The Generic Contexts of Natural History 96

6 Writing Elite Natural History 119

7 Ants in the Library: An Interlude 139

Part III Communicational Ants 163

8 The Macy Meanings of Meaning 167

9 From Pheromones to Sociobiology 190.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [231]-294) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

0801884454

9780801884450

OCLC:

70483188

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description