Karl Jordan (1861-1959) was an extraordinarily productive entomologist who influenced
the development of systematics, entomology, and naturalists' theoretical framework as well as their
practice. He has been a figure in existing accounts of the naturalist tradition between 1890 and
1940 that have defended the relative contribution of naturalists to the modern evolutionary
synthesis. These accounts, while useful, have primarily examined the natural history of the period
in view of how it led to developments in the 1930s and 40s, removing pre-Synthesis naturalists
like Jordan from their research programs, institutional contexts, and disciplinary homes, for the
sake of synthesis narratives. This dissertation redresses this picture by examining a naturalist, who,
although often cited as important in the synthesis, is more accurately viewed as a man working on
the problems of an earlier period. This study examines the specific problems that concerned
Jordan, as well as the dynamic institutional, international, theoretical and methodological context
of entomology and natural history during his lifetime. It focuses upon how the context in which
natural history has been done changed greatly during Jordan's life time, and discusses the role of
these changes in both placing naturalists on the defensive among an array of new disciplines and
attitudes in science, and providing them with new tools and justifications for doing natural history.
One of the primary intents of this study is to demonstrate the many different motives and
conditions through which naturalists came to and worked in natural history. It argues that
understanding this diversity within the views, methods, and priorities of naturalists is not only
important to developing a more accurate understanding of the naturalist tradition, but to
understanding the ramifications of the complexity in the naturalist tradition for the fate of certain
research programs as well. / Graduation date: 2004
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/30196 |
| Date | 21 July 2003 |
| Creators | Johnson, Kristin Renee |
| Contributors | Farber, Paul Lawrence |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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