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Author: Staffan M?ller-Wille
ISBN : 0262134764
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Free download Free Download Heredity Produced: At the Crossroads of Biology, Politics, and Culture, 1500-1870 from mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link
Until the middle of the eighteenth century, the biological makeup of an organism was ascribed to an individual instance of "generation"--involving conception, pregnancy, embryonic development, parturition, lactation, and even astral influences and maternal mood--rather than the biological transmission of traits and characteristics. Discussions of heredity and inheritance took place largely in the legal and political sphere. In Heredity Produced, scholars from a broad range of disciplines explore the development of the concept of heredity from the early modern period to the era of Darwin and Mendel.The contributors examine the evolution of the concept in disparate cultural realms--including law, medicine, and natural history--and show that it did not coalesce into a more general understanding of heredity until the mid-nineteenth century. They consider inheritance and kinship in a legal context; the classification of certain diseases as hereditary; the study of botany; animal and plant breeding and hybridization for desirable characteristics; theories of generation and evolution; and anthropology and its study of physical differences among humans, particularly skin color. The editors argue that only when people, animals, and plants became more mobile--and were separated from their natural habitats through exploration, colonialism, and other causes--could scientists distinguish between inherited and environmentally induced traits and develop a coherent theory of heredity.
Download latest books on mediafire and other links compilation Free Download Heredity Produced: At the Crossroads of Biology, Politics, and Culture, 1500-1870 (Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology) [Hardcover]
- Series: Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology
- Hardcover: 496 pages
- Publisher: The MIT Press; 1 edition (February 16, 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0262134764
- ISBN-13: 978-0262134767
- Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 7.2 x 8.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Free Download Heredity Produced: At the Crossroads of Biology, Politics, and Culture, 1500-1870
I believe there are very few works within history of biology that can be called truly international. This is one of them. Scholars from USA, Europe and Latinamerica participated in the writing of this anthology. They review a diversity of disciplinary and geographical contexts and, in doing so, they offer us an understanding on how heredity as a concept emerged in the XIX century. All the authors are respected and recognized, they are all professional philosophers and historians of biology, their peer reviewed work is well known. What they present here might not be very original if you happen to be an expert on the history of genetics / heredity, but if you are not, then this is the right place to start.
By Fabrizzio Mc Manus