Science and the savage : the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 1874-1900

In this paper I propose to examine the role of one colonial scientific organization in elaborating a specific, politically potent configuration of the nature/culture binary through its positioning of the ââ"šÂ¬Ã‹Å“Aborigineââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢. In particular, following those theorists who have recently unsettled the culture/nature divide, I wish to examine the collapse of ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢the Aborigineââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ into the pedagogic activities of a society devoted to the study of the natural history of New South Wales in the late nineteenth century. In so doing, I seek to highlight the institutional framework of natural historical enquiry, and to register its importance alongside the more widely examined role of individuals and specific theories in knowledge-making endeavours.