Care of the Species: Races of Corn and the Science of Plant Biodiversity

Synopsis

John Hartigan Jr. Uses Ethnography To Access The Expertise Of Botanists And Others Engaged With Cultivating Biodiversity, Providing Various Entry Points For Understanding Plants In The World Around Us. He Begins By Tracing The Historical Emergence Of Race Through Practices Of Care On Nonhumans, Showing How This History Informs Current Thinking About Conservation. With Geneticists Working On Maize, Hartigan Deploys Foucault's Concept Of Care Of The Self To Analyze How Domesticated Species Are Augmented By An Afterlife Of Data. In The Botanical Gardens Of Spain, Care Of The Species Explores Seed Banks, Herbariums, And Living Collections, Depicting The Range Of Ways People Interact With Botanical Knowledge. This Culminated In Hartigan's Effort To Engage Plants As Ethnographic Subjects Through A Series Of Imaginative Interview Techniques.--cover. Pt. I. Species Interiors -- Follow The Species : In And Out Of Labs -- Maize : An Ethnohistory -- Racial Thinking : Transgenics Versus Razas -- Selfing : The Sexual History Of A Species -- Species Thinking : Calibrating Knowledge Of Life Forms -- Interlude : Figure And Ground -- Pt. Ii. Knowing Plants -- Living Ethnographies : Of Plants And Arguments -- Species Don't Exist : Theorizing Life Forms -- Care And Its Publics : Peopling Botanical Gardens -- How To Interview A Plant : Ethnography Of Life Forms -- Epilogue : An Elegant Plant. John Hartigan Jr. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.