| Whereas most studies of the rise of genetics have focused on concepts such as "trait" and "gene" and on key experiments that led to the rise of genetics, this dissertation asks what were the cultural changes that occurred in the last half of the nineteenth century that allowed biologists and animal and plant breeders to think of heredity in terms of unit characters? It claims that important changes in social mores, in experiences of space and time, and in transportation, communication, and information processing practices contributed to a new way of conceiving of the potential of organisms. It makes this claim by detailing the conceptual world, or episteme, of a number of characters who witnessed the rise of genetic science but felt more comfortable working within the natural history tradition. Foremost among these is the naturalist, eugenicist, and educator David Starr Jordan (and his circle of friends, collaborators, and correspondents). It then contrasts this older episteme with the episteme of those undertaking large-scale breeding experiments. What emerges from this study is the observation that many hereditary scientists conceived of and used informational technologies to navigate cultural geographic space differently from natural historians. Under this conception, genetic science arose as an abstract symbolic discourse for evaluating and communicating about the functional capacities of organisms in an industrial economy. |
