Rethinking Science, Religion and Nature in Environmental History: Drought in Early Twentieth-Century New Zealand

IF 0.9 3区 历史学 Q1 HISTORY
James Beattie
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引用次数: 12

Abstract

This article investigates popular and elite conceptions of science and religion in an early twentieth-century European settler society. It uses the case-study of rainmaking experiments and prayers in North Otago, New Zealand, in 1907, to challenge two dominant paradigms about New Zealand society: first, that scientific rationalism was automatically antipathetic to religion and, second, that by the early twentieth century scientific ideas were secularizing New Zealand society. North Otago's residents viewed prayer and experiment as complementary activities designed to meet the same ends; there was no distinctive, hermetically sealed division between the secular and the profane. Rainmaking also offers a fascinating way of exploring contested notions of science. While local residents enthusiastically embraced the use of explosives to bring rain, meteorologists decried these measures as unscientific and amateurish, thereby attempting to increase the legitimacy of their own profession. The reaction to North Otago's rainmaking prayers and experiments differed considerably from that of other societies such as in England and Australia in which similar prayers and experiments were undertaken. These differences reflected the special social and cultural characteristics of each country and, in New Zealand's case, its greater religious tolerance and social opportunities.
重新思考环境历史中的科学、宗教和自然:20世纪初新西兰的干旱
本文考察了二十世纪早期欧洲移民社会中流行的和精英的科学和宗教观念。它使用了1907年新西兰北奥塔哥的造雨实验和祈祷的案例研究,来挑战关于新西兰社会的两种主要范式:第一,科学理性主义自动排斥宗教;第二,到20世纪初,科学思想正在使新西兰社会世俗化。北奥塔哥的居民将祈祷和实验视为互补的活动,旨在达到相同的目的;在世俗和世俗之间没有明显的、密封的区分。人工降雨也为探索有争议的科学概念提供了一种有趣的方式。当当地居民热情地接受使用炸药带来降雨时,气象学家谴责这些措施是不科学和业余的,从而试图增加他们自己专业的合法性。对北奥塔哥的降雨祈祷和实验的反应与其他社会,如英格兰和澳大利亚,进行类似的祈祷和实验有很大的不同。这些差异反映了每个国家特殊的社会和文化特征,就新西兰而言,反映了其更大的宗教宽容和社会机会。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
2.30
自引率
0.00%
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