{"title":"Environmental Alchemy: Mercury-Gold Amalgamation Mining and the Transformation of the Earth.","authors":"Donna Bilak, George Vrtis","doi":"10.1080/00026980.2023.2192131","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Wherever mercury-gold amalgamation mining unfolds, alchemical processes abound. They are there as catalytic agents forming amalgams at atomic levels. They are there as cultural agents transforming rocks into cell phones and all kinds of consumer goods. And they are there as ideological agents mutually translating human understandings across whole worlds we describe as the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. These processes, we argue, are made more legible - more readily perceived and conceptualised - by peering through the lens of <i>environmental alchemy</i>, a new critical framework in which we apply the historical use of alchemical terms to investigations of environmental change, and to understand the extraordinary complexity that gold and mercury set in motion when mining entangles nature and culture.</p>","PeriodicalId":50963,"journal":{"name":"Ambix","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ambix","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2023.2192131","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Wherever mercury-gold amalgamation mining unfolds, alchemical processes abound. They are there as catalytic agents forming amalgams at atomic levels. They are there as cultural agents transforming rocks into cell phones and all kinds of consumer goods. And they are there as ideological agents mutually translating human understandings across whole worlds we describe as the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. These processes, we argue, are made more legible - more readily perceived and conceptualised - by peering through the lens of environmental alchemy, a new critical framework in which we apply the historical use of alchemical terms to investigations of environmental change, and to understand the extraordinary complexity that gold and mercury set in motion when mining entangles nature and culture.
期刊介绍：
Ambix is an internationally recognised, peer-reviewed quarterly journal devoted to publishing high-quality, original research and book reviews in the intellectual, social and cultural history of alchemy and chemistry. It publishes studies, discussions, and primary sources relevant to the historical experience of all areas related to alchemy and chemistry covering all periods (ancient to modern) and geographical regions. Ambix publishes individual papers, focused thematic sections and larger special issues (either single or double and usually guest-edited). Topics covered by Ambix include, but are not limited to, interactions between alchemy and chemistry and other disciplines; chemical medicine and pharmacy; molecular sciences; practices allied to material, instrumental, institutional and visual cultures; environmental chemistry; the chemical industry; the appearance of alchemy and chemistry within popular culture; biographical and historiographical studies; and the study of issues related to gender, race, and colonial experience within the context of chemistry.
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