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SUMMARY:Opening the West with Japanese mermaid mummies: ningyo in the maki
 ng of the theory of evolution - Mateja Kovacic (Hong Kong Baptist Universi
 ty)
DTSTART:20240516T143000Z
DTEND:20240516T160000Z
UID:TALK216007@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lewis Bremner
DESCRIPTION:Mateja Kovacic discusses how knowledge in the form of _ningyo_
  mummies 'caught' around Japan shaped the scientific and public debate abo
 ut the theory of evolution and the origin of species in the Euro-American 
 context. During the Edo period\, various mermaid creatures – _ningyo_ 
 – were a popular and scientific topic\, studied by well-known scholars i
 ncluding Ōtsuki Gentaku and Itō Keisuke\, as well as by amateur naturali
 sts like the Edo greengrocer Okukura Tatsuyuki. First housed as religious 
 artifacts in temples and shrines\, mermaid mummies (_ningyo no miira_) wer
 e unique gender-fluid hybrids made of monkey\, fish\, and dog parts combin
 ed with wood and papier-mâché. From the second half of the eighteenth ce
 ntury\, they became important actors in scientific knowledge production. T
 hey were a part of daily life in the form of visual novels\, medicines\, l
 eaflets\, protective amulets against epidemics\, dishware\, decorative art
 ifacts\, _misemono_\, temple displays\, and products in curio stores. They
  were also a subject of empirical scientific inquiry that reveals the epis
 temological multiplicity of the times\, as well as the ways that epistemol
 ogical systems were being challenged and their boundaries pushed further.
LOCATION:Large Lecture Theatre\, Department of Plant Sciences\, Downing Si
 te
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