Picture 1 of 7
Gallery
Picture 1 of 7
The Platypus and the Mermaid: And Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination
US $29.75
ApproximatelyRM 126.54
or Best Offer
Was US $35.00 (15% off)
Condition:
Like New
A book in excellent condition. Cover is shiny and undamaged, and the dust jacket is included for hard covers. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, and no underlining/highlighting of text or writing in the margins. May be very minimal identifying marks on the inside cover. Very minimal wear and tear.
Sale ends in: 5d 17h
Oops! Looks like we're having trouble connecting to our server.
Refresh your browser window to try again.
Pickup:
Free local pickup from Byron Center, Michigan, United States.
Shipping:
US $5.38 (approx RM 22.88) USPS Media MailTM.
Located in: Byron Center, Michigan, United States
Delivery:
Estimated between Thu, 26 Jun and Mon, 30 Jun to 94104
Returns:
No returns accepted.
Coverage:
Read item description or contact seller for details. See all detailsSee all details on coverage
(Not eligible for eBay purchase protection programmes)
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:114657252342
Item specifics
- Condition
- Book Title
- The Platypus and the Mermaid
- Narrative Type
- Nonfiction
- Original Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780674673588
About this product
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Harvard University Press
ISBN-10
0674673581
ISBN-13
9780674673588
eBay Product ID (ePID)
379321
Product Key Features
Number of Pages
298 Pages
Language
English
Publication Name
Platypus and the Mermaid : and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination
Subject
Life Sciences / Taxonomy, Europe / Great Britain / General, Regional, History, Life Sciences / Zoology / General
Publication Year
1998
Type
Textbook
Subject Area
Nature, Science, History
Format
Trade Paperback
Dimensions
Item Height
0.8 in
Item Weight
15.8 Oz
Item Length
9.2 in
Item Width
6.1 in
Additional Product Features
Intended Audience
Scholarly & Professional
LCCN
97-000405
Reviews
This racy, erudite study of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century taxonomy reminds us that classification reveals at least as much about the classifiers as the classified. Moving deftly from the practice and language of science towards popular attitudes, The Platypus and the Mermaid takes on hybrids, monsters, freaks and culinary choice...[It] offers a highly entertaining account of the interactions of science and culture [and] is a compelling reminder of the politics and prejudice that fired the classifying imagination., Ritvo's is an insightful look at the development of English zoology and its strong ties to cultural context., [Ritvo's] learning is wide and unusual, her book a bran tub stuffed with obscure authors and diverse beliefs, where science mingles with prejudice, and sense with silliness...The huge range of out-of-the-way evidence that Ritvo brings to bear on her theme is impressive and absorbing...[The book] explores the fascinating question of how far we shape language to fit our behavior and how far language shapes us., [An] engaging, offbeat book... The Platypus and the Mermaid is a study of a wide range of classificatory practices in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Ritvo is particularly interested in the interplay between learned and popular writing...I have thoroughly enjoyed Ritvo's entertaining and informative tour of both the highroads and the hedgerows of natural history., Like a dimsum restaurant, The Platypus and the Mermaid offers an enormous variety of tidbits...The reviews in the world's two leading weeklies of science both agreed...that [Ritvo's] is an entertaining and enormously informative book. I can only join the chorus., Harriet Ritvo's theme is classification, but in the vernacular tradition rather than the classically biological. Her knowledge is prodigious, and she is not afraid to speak out on arcane topics...Ritvo has written an authoritative and compelling book filled with often bizarre and sometimes macabre accounts of how humans divide up their world. Every statement and quotation has full references in the end notes to the pages and her erudition should make this an essential classic for all those interested in the wider issues of taxonomy., In The Platypus and the Mermaid , Harriet Ritvo explores some of the motives, reasonable and otherside, underlying British classifications of animals in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries...Anybody who reads it will be fascinated by all the curiosities Ritvo has assembled...[Her] book is worth reading for its erudition and charm and for her perceptive observations on the social and political motives embedded in the scientific doctrines she surveys., [An] entertaining and often hilarious story of how 19th-century scientists and philosophers tried to come to terms with the complex problem of classifying living things...The subject is of enduring interest and the book is the first I have encountered that deals with it so thoroughly and accurately., Ritvo's study of 18th- and 19th- century British taxonomic practices is premised on the belief--repeatedly espoused by anthropologists--that classification of important objects such as animals can reveal as much about the classifiers as about the classified. The way we order the world reflects how we think about it...This book provides an extremely rich and detailed collection of vignettes illustrating the many ways that Victorian thought of animals, making for thought-provoking and entertaining reading., [An] engaging, offbeat book...The Platypus and the Mermaid is a study of a wide range of classificatory practices in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Ritvo is particularly interested in the interplay between learned and popular writing...I have thoroughly enjoyed Ritvo's entertaining and informative tour of both the highroads and the hedgerows of natural history., In The Platypus and the Mermaid, Harriet Ritvo explores some of the motives, reasonable and otherside, underlying British classifications of animals in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries...Anybody who reads it will be fascinated by all the curiosities Ritvo has assembled...[Her] book is worth reading for its erudition and charm and for her perceptive observations on the social and political motives embedded in the scientific doctrines she surveys.
Dewey Edition
21
Illustrated
Yes
Dewey Decimal
590/.1/2
Table Of Content
Introduction The Point of Order Flesh Made Word Barring the Cross Out of Bounds Matters of Taste Notes Acknowledgments Illustration Credits Index
Synopsis
"Cats is 'dogs,' and rabbits is 'dogs,' and so's parrots; but this 'ere 'tortis' is a insect," a porter explains to an astonished traveler in a nineteenth-century Punch cartoon. Railways were not the only British institution to schematize the world. This enormously entertaining book captures the fervor of the Victorian age for classifying and categorizing every new specimen, plant or animal, that British explorers and soldiers and sailors brought home. As she depicts a whole complex of competing groups deploying rival schemes and nomenclatures, Harriet Ritvo shows us a society drawing and redrawing its own boundaries and ultimately identifying itself. The experts (whether calling themselves naturalists, zoologists, or comparative anatomists) agreed on their superior authority if nothing else, but the laymen had their say--and Ritvo shows us a world in which butchers and artists, farmers and showmen vied to impose order on the wild profusion of nature. Sometimes assumptions or preoccupations overlapped; sometimes open disagreement or hostility emerged, exposing fissures in the social fabric or contested cultural territory. Of the greatest interest were creatures that confounded or crossed established categories; in the discussions provoked by these mishaps, monstrosities, and hybrids we can see ideas about human society--about the sexual proclivities of women, for instance, or the imagined hierarchy of nations and races. A thoroughly absorbing account of taxonomy--as zoological classification and as anthropological study-- The Platypus and the Mermaid offers a new perspective on the constantly shifting, ever suggestive interactions of scientific lore, cultural ideas, and the popular imagination., Capturing the fervor of the Victorian age for classifying and categorizing, Ritvo depicts a complex of competing groups--naturalists and zoologists, farmers and showmen, butchers and artists--deploying rival schemes to impose order on nature., "Cats is 'dogs, ' and rabbits is 'dogs, ' and so's parrots; but this ere 'tortis' is a insect," a porter explains to an astonished traveler in a nineteenth-century Punch cartoon. Railways were not the only British institution to schematize the world. This enormously entertaining book captures the fervor of the Victorian age for classifying and categorizing every new specimen, plant or animal, that British explorers and soldiers and sailors brought home. As she depicts a whole complex of competing groups deploying rival schemes and nomenclatures, Harriet Ritvo shows us a society drawing and redrawing its own boundaries and ultimately identifying itself. The experts (whether calling themselves naturalists, zoologists, or comparative anatomists) agreed on their superior authority if nothing else, but the laymen had their say--and Ritvo shows us a world in which butchers and artists, farmers and showmen vied to impose order on the wild profusion of nature. Sometimes assumptions or preoccupations overlapped; sometimes open disagreement or hostility emerged, exposing fissures in the social fabric or contested cultural territory. Of the greatest interest were creatures that confounded or crossed established categories; in the discussions provoked by these mishaps, monstrosities, and hybrids we can see ideas about human society--about the sexual proclivities of women, for instance, or the imagined hierarchy of nations and races. A thoroughly absorbing account of taxonomy--as zoological classification and as anthropological study-- The Platypus and the Mermaid offers a new perspective on the constantly shifting, ever suggestive interactions of scientific lore, cultural ideas, and the popular imagination.
LC Classification Number
QL351.R57 1998
Item description from the seller
Seller feedback (4,753)
- r***r (268)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseExcellent!
- 5***5 (191)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseFast shipping, secure packaging and item as described. Highly recommended A +++
- c***s (27)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseGreat seller. Willing to negotiate, Fast shipping. Great condition. Very happy.
More to explore :
- Imagination Station Books,
- The Little Mermaid Books,
- Susan Branch Other Books,
- Other Enid Blyton Books,
- Lawrence Block Other Books,
- Brene Brown Other Books,
- Other Children & Young Adult Coloring Books,
- May Gibbs Other Books,
- Land Before Time Book In other Children & Young Adult Books,
- Ghostbusters Book In other Children & Young Adult Books
Seller feedback (4,753)
- r***r (268)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseExcellent!
- 5***5 (191)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseFast shipping, secure packaging and item as described. Highly recommended A +++
- c***s (27)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseGreat seller. Willing to negotiate, Fast shipping. Great condition. Very happy.