Politics in the Scientific Classification of Human Bodies

1
Politics in the Scientific Classification of
Human Bodies

• A Presentation by
• Katheryn Wright
• and Dr. Kay Picart

2
Introduction

• The first three chapters of Londa Schiebingers
  Natures Body deal with how the classification of
  plants, mammals and apes by naturalists
  intersects with certain gender issues of 18th
  century Europe.
• This presentation focuses on the last four
  chapters that discuss how the human body acts as
  a site of contestation for political power.

3
Aims

• Understand how Foucaults notion of political
  anatomy serves as a framework for Schiebingers
  analysis
• Discuss specific ways humankind was to be divided
• Articulate the difference between
  environmentalism and biological determinism,
  making sure to understand basic assumptions about
  nature

4
Aims (2)

• Realize the conflict between scientific sexism
  and scientific racism, both of which serve as
  reaction to the Revolutions claim for natural
  rights
• Articulate the difference between the doctrine
  of the great chain of being and the doctrine of
  sexual complementarity
• Understand the body politic, or how the body is
  infused with power
• Discuss how the practitioners of science affect
  sciences outcome

5
Works Cited

• Foucault, Michel. Docile Bodies. In Foucault
  Reader. Ed. Paul Rabinow (New York Pantheon
  Books, 1984). 179-187.
• Hooks, bell. The Oppositional Gaze Black
  Female Spectators. Feminism and Tradition in
  Aesthetics. Eds. Peggy Zeglin Brand and Carolyn
  Korsmeyer (State College, Pennsylvania Penn
  State University Press, 1995). 142-159
• Kubrick, Stanley, dir. Clockwork Orange.
  Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Adrienne Corri
  (Warner Bros., 1971).
• Picart, Caroline. The Darwinian Shift Kuhn vs.
  Laudan (Acton Massachusetts Copley, 1997).
• Schiebinger, Londa. Natures Body Gender in the
  Making of Modern Science (Boston Beacon Press,
  1993). 115-212.