Papers by Dorit Brixius
History of Science, 2020
This essay examines the relationship between slavery and plant knowledge for cultivational activi... more This essay examines the relationship between slavery and plant knowledge for cultivational activities and medicinal purposes on Isle de France (Mauritius) in the second half of the eighteenth century. It builds on recent scholarship to argue for the significance of slaves in the acquisition of plant material and related knowledge in pharmaceutical, acclimatization, and private gardens on the French colonial island. I highlight the degree to which French colonial officials relied on slaves’ ethnobotanical knowledge but neglected to include such information in their published works. Rather than seeking to explore the status of such knowledge within European frameworks of natural history as an endpoint of knowledge production, this essay calls upon us to think about the plant knowledge that slaves possessed for its practical implementations in the local island context. Both female and male slaves’ plant-based knowledge enriched – even initiated – practices of cultivation and preparation techniques of plants for nourishment and medicinal uses. Here, cultivational knowledge and skills determined a slave’s hierarchical rank. As the case of the slave gardener Rama and his family reveals, plant knowledge sometimes offered slaves opportunities for social mobility and, even though on extremely rare occasions, enabled them to become legally free.
Historische Zeitschrift 308-1, 2019
The British Journal for the History of Science, 2018
One of France's colonial enterprises in the eighteenth century was to acclimatize nutmeg, native ... more One of France's colonial enterprises in the eighteenth century was to acclimatize nutmeg, native to the Maluku islands, in the French colony of Isle de France (today's Mauritius). Exploring the acclimatization of nutmeg as a practice, this paper reveals the practical challenges of transferring knowledge between Indo-Pacific islands in the second half of the eighteenth century. This essay will look at the process through which knowledge was created-including ruptures and fractures-as opposed to looking at the mere circulation of knowledge. I argue that nutmeg cultivation on Isle de France was a complex process of creolizing expertise originating from the local populations of the plants' native islands with the horticultural knowledge of colonists, settlers, labourers and slaves living on Isle de France. In this respect, creolization describes a process of knowledge production rather than a form of knowledge. Once on Isle de France, nutmeg took root in climate and soil conditions which were different from those of its native South East Asian islands. It was cultivated by slaves and colonists who lacked prior experience with the cultivation of this particular spice. Experienced horticulturalists experimented with their own traditions. While they relied on old assumptions, they also came to question them. By examining cultivation as an applied practice, this paper argues that the creolization of knowledge was a critical aspect in French colonial botany.
British Journal for the History of Science, 2018
This Introduction offers a conceptualization of the Indo-Pacific, its islands and their place wit... more This Introduction offers a conceptualization of the Indo-Pacific, its islands and their place within the history of science. We argue that Indo-Pacific islands present a remarkable combination of social, political and spatial circumstances, which speak to themes that are central to the history of science. Having driven movements of people and represented staging grounds for explorations, expansions and cross-cultural exchanges, these spaces have been at the forefront of historical change. The historiographies of the two oceans have traditionally emphasized indigenous agency while downplaying European historical trajectories, and therefore they provide historians of science with materials and methodologies that promise nuanced portrayals of knowledge production in cross-cultural settings. Rather than unifying the oceans into a cohesive narrative, we seek to uncover the many horizons of Indo-Pacific worlds and pluralize the spaces within which knowledge travelled at specific times, but not at others. Offering a middle plane between the globe and the region, islands are particularly productive sites for such analyses, as they bring to attention both localized kinds of agency and the impacts of colonialism and globalization. This special issue investigates what happens to knowledge within island spaces and demonstrates that even as small strips of land, islands can significantly enhance our understanding of the practices of knowledge making within the broader contours of world history. In bringing to the fore the contributions of actors from across the wider social spectrum and, especially, the interacting roles of indigenous agents and their traditions, Indo-Pacific worlds thus offer exciting new directions for a field which has often been dominated by a focus on European institutions.
Just logistics? Landing stages as socio-cultural spaces of applied knowledge in the Indo-Pacific ... more Just logistics? Landing stages as socio-cultural spaces of applied knowledge in the Indo-Pacific world in the 18th century
This paper argues for the significance of landing stages as socio-cultural places of knowledge practice for the cross-oceanic transport of live plants. Focusing on the French attempts to collect nutmeg native to the Maluku Islands in the second half of the 18th century, it explores the role of landing stages across the Malay Archipelago where the French collaborated with local populations and where plant material was being collected, packed, and shipped. By using a praxeological approach rather than examining harbours and landing stages regarding their (architectural) dichotomy, it explores their role via practices and socio-environmental interaction that defined them as places of applied knowledge. Here, I insist on moving away from the Eurocentric concept of the harbour by introducing a more neutral term of ‘landing stages’ determined by logics and logistics being adapted according to situational possibilities and limits.
New Approaches to the History of Adoption. Conference Report
German Historical Institute London B... more New Approaches to the History of Adoption. Conference Report
German Historical Institute London Bulletin, Vol 32, No. 2
(November 2010), pp 115-119.
Thesis by Dorit Brixius
Conference Papers by Dorit Brixius
L’histoire de la quête française des épices dans l’Océan Indien est assez connue, en particulier ... more L’histoire de la quête française des épices dans l’Océan Indien est assez connue, en particulier celle glorifiée par l’intendant des Mascareignes, le botaniste autoproclamé Pierre Poivre. Contrairement aux études sur les conceptions coloniales depuis la métropole qui suggèrent un pouvoir absolu de celle-ci sur ses colonies, cette communication porte sur une histoire coloniale « par le bas ». On essayera de comprendre la production et la circulation des épices à travers des acteurs anonymes, le transport des plantes vivantes et les facteurs environnementaux de la région Indo-Pacifique comme dispositifs, qui sont invisibles dans l’historiographie française concernant le commerce des épices.
In 1772, the Académie royale des sciences published a report about the successful acclimatisation... more In 1772, the Académie royale des sciences published a report about the successful acclimatisation of nutmeg in the French colony of Isle de France (present-day Mauritius). Published in the Observations Botaniques section of the Histoire de l’Académie royale des sciences, the report speaks of a smooth and successful ‘conquest for botany and for the French kingdom’ while glorifying the efforts of a man called Pierre Poivre. Quite indeed between 1768 and 1772, the traveller, agronomist and intendant of Isle de France Pierre Poivre (1719-86), initiated a series of spice quests in the Indo-Pacific world.
When understanding the French spice quests as deep histories, this enterprise was a very complex, messy and above all entangled one. In my research, I sought to re-situate forgotten historical actors and highlight the complexity of the spice project. In this paper, I illuminate sugarcoated obstacles. Through the lens of the French spice project, my aim is to correct the narrative of a glorious and well-functioning empire run by great men in the metropolis. Dismantling this simplistic story, the aim of my paper today is to explore the impact of material practices and environmental factors, which determined the success or failure of specimen transportation.
Insularities Connected is a major international conference dedicated to the study of islands as a... more Insularities Connected is a major international conference dedicated to the study of islands as a constituent part of seascapes, imperial contexts or any other conceptual framework. Going beyond mere typologies of islands, or the study thereof as a distinct object of inquiry, we invite conference participants to consider the spatial attributes of islands in different historical coordinates. In other words, how insularity, i.e. the condition of being an island, changes over time, place, and context. The study of islands as a spatial category situated within a bigger analytical whole has offered new perspectives in Mediterranean, Caribbean or Indian Ocean studies; we aspire to bring the insights gained by those approaches in a trans-regional dialogue of global scope. The conference therefore enquires into what can be gained by looking at islands not as scattered parts of a regional maritime story, but scans the horizon from the vantage point of islands themselves to find broader, less obvious connections.
Interviews by Dorit Brixius
Uploads
Papers by Dorit Brixius
This paper argues for the significance of landing stages as socio-cultural places of knowledge practice for the cross-oceanic transport of live plants. Focusing on the French attempts to collect nutmeg native to the Maluku Islands in the second half of the 18th century, it explores the role of landing stages across the Malay Archipelago where the French collaborated with local populations and where plant material was being collected, packed, and shipped. By using a praxeological approach rather than examining harbours and landing stages regarding their (architectural) dichotomy, it explores their role via practices and socio-environmental interaction that defined them as places of applied knowledge. Here, I insist on moving away from the Eurocentric concept of the harbour by introducing a more neutral term of ‘landing stages’ determined by logics and logistics being adapted according to situational possibilities and limits.
German Historical Institute London Bulletin, Vol 32, No. 2
(November 2010), pp 115-119.
Thesis by Dorit Brixius
Conference Papers by Dorit Brixius
When understanding the French spice quests as deep histories, this enterprise was a very complex, messy and above all entangled one. In my research, I sought to re-situate forgotten historical actors and highlight the complexity of the spice project. In this paper, I illuminate sugarcoated obstacles. Through the lens of the French spice project, my aim is to correct the narrative of a glorious and well-functioning empire run by great men in the metropolis. Dismantling this simplistic story, the aim of my paper today is to explore the impact of material practices and environmental factors, which determined the success or failure of specimen transportation.
Interviews by Dorit Brixius
For the full interview see: http://geschichte-transnational.clio-online.net/projekte/id=517&sort=datum&order=down&search=dorit&segment=16
This paper argues for the significance of landing stages as socio-cultural places of knowledge practice for the cross-oceanic transport of live plants. Focusing on the French attempts to collect nutmeg native to the Maluku Islands in the second half of the 18th century, it explores the role of landing stages across the Malay Archipelago where the French collaborated with local populations and where plant material was being collected, packed, and shipped. By using a praxeological approach rather than examining harbours and landing stages regarding their (architectural) dichotomy, it explores their role via practices and socio-environmental interaction that defined them as places of applied knowledge. Here, I insist on moving away from the Eurocentric concept of the harbour by introducing a more neutral term of ‘landing stages’ determined by logics and logistics being adapted according to situational possibilities and limits.
German Historical Institute London Bulletin, Vol 32, No. 2
(November 2010), pp 115-119.
When understanding the French spice quests as deep histories, this enterprise was a very complex, messy and above all entangled one. In my research, I sought to re-situate forgotten historical actors and highlight the complexity of the spice project. In this paper, I illuminate sugarcoated obstacles. Through the lens of the French spice project, my aim is to correct the narrative of a glorious and well-functioning empire run by great men in the metropolis. Dismantling this simplistic story, the aim of my paper today is to explore the impact of material practices and environmental factors, which determined the success or failure of specimen transportation.
For the full interview see: http://geschichte-transnational.clio-online.net/projekte/id=517&sort=datum&order=down&search=dorit&segment=16
Available at: http://www.pnn.de/wissen/382659/
For three days, young researchers from all over Europe, the Russian Federation, Canada, and the USA are coming together to present and discuss their work with fellow postgraduates. The topics will range from biomedicine to amateur knowledge, colonial science to psychology, the visualisation of science to women in science, medical practices to oral histories and many more.
The conference will close with a keynote lecture by Professor Van Damme entitled ‘In the shadow of the French empire of science: writing an anti-globalist narrative (17th-18th century)’.
This conference is organised by Dorit Brixius (EUI-HEC), Déborah Dubald (EUI-HEC), Leonardo Ariel Cataldi Carrio (EHESS, CAK-haStec), Sebestian Kroupa (Cambridge - HPS), Nicholas Mithen (EUI-HEC) and Katalin Straner (EUI-HEC).
For the programme and further details, see: http://www.eui.eu/events/detail.aspx?eventid=136710
Cambridge, 15-16 September 2016
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: SUJIT SIVASUNDARAM (CAMBRIDGE)
Within World History, the Indo-Pacific has played an important role in the production and development of scientific and cultural knowledge. Focusing on islands in the Indo-Pacific in particular, this two-day conference will explore their spatial and temporal role within the history of scientific knowledge production. Across these two disparate oceanic regions, islands acted as spaces of transit – which linked origin and destination for travellers, explorers and merchants – and also served as a home for indigenous communities. Bringing together historians from the early modern to the modern period, this conference seeks to explore knowledge production across geopolitical, social and cultural contexts.
We seek to address the following questions: What roles did Indo-Pacific islands play in different historical periods, and how did this change over time? How were Indo-Pacific islands connected to or disconnected from each other and from continental societies? How were islands explored and how was knowledge about them transmitted? How did islanders interact with Europeans and what impact did indigenous knowledge have on knowledge production?
We invite proposals for INDIVIDUAL 20-MINUTES PAPERS concerned with the following and beyond:
- insularity, connectedness and disconnectedness
- natural history, zoology, botany, agriculture and environment
- medicine and health
- astronomy, mathematics and physics
- geology, geography, cartography and navigation
- ethnography, anthropology and indigenous knowledge
- architecture, urban spaces and landscapes
- material and cultural exchanges
We encourage submissions from students and early career researchers in particular. Proposals concerned with the early modern period are especially welcome.
Please submit an abstract (max. 300 words) and a brief description of your academic affiliation and disciplinary background to BSHS.IndoPacific@gmail.com by 15 May, 2016.
Visit http://www.bshs.org.uk/conferences/other-bshs-meetings, where more information will be available shortly.
Dorit Brixius, Sebestian Kroupa, Stephanie Mawson
Conference Committee