Challenges to fieldwork in environmental history : The cautionary tale of the expedition to the Gobi desert that mapped the Qilian shan mountain fan
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2013-08-20
Author(s)
Abstract
The ad hoc interdisciplinary organization of scientific expeditions, their political agendas, the attention they enjoyed in the media and from the general public, and personal conflicts and vendettas have been viewed with suspicion by many contemporary career scientists, and today by many historians of science.
The immediate challenges met by field scientists in the Gobi desert were related to the heterogeneous concepts, tools, practices they used to collect and process information on specific but meaningful locales. Patient measuring, counting, mapping, excavating, good luck, and their intimate familiarity with the terrain allowed them to re-construct the history of vanished civilizations and speculate on their complex relationships with nature.
Away from the field, the interpretation of maps, images, photographs, sketches and landscape watercolors may present a formidable challenge. Explorers relied on various visual supports to record, organize and preserve field notes and data. The entanglement of text and image and of the scientific and artistic renditions of the landscape is seen with disdain.
The immediate challenges met by field scientists in the Gobi desert were related to the heterogeneous concepts, tools, practices they used to collect and process information on specific but meaningful locales. Patient measuring, counting, mapping, excavating, good luck, and their intimate familiarity with the terrain allowed them to re-construct the history of vanished civilizations and speculate on their complex relationships with nature.
Away from the field, the interpretation of maps, images, photographs, sketches and landscape watercolors may present a formidable challenge. Explorers relied on various visual supports to record, organize and preserve field notes and data. The entanglement of text and image and of the scientific and artistic renditions of the landscape is seen with disdain.
Language
English
Keywords
Environmental history
environmental humanities
fieldwork studies
Silk Road studies
history of the geo-sciences
history of cartography
Gobi (China)
HSG Classification
contribution to education
HSG Profile Area
SHSS - Kulturen, Institutionen, Maerkte (KIM)
Refereed
No
Publisher
ESEH
Start page
111
Event Title
"Mountains withour Borders" ESEH summer school
Event Location
Lavin GR
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
225347