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Feminist History of Colonial Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Abstract

This essay offers a short overview of feminist history of science and introduces a new project into that history, namely feminist history of colonial science. My case study focuses on eighteenth-century voyages of scientific discovery and reveals how gender relations in Europe and the colonies honed selective collecting practices. Cultural, economic, and political trends discouraged the transfer from the New World to the Old of abortifacients (widely used by Amerindian and African women in the West Indies).1

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by Hypatia, Inc.

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