Natural history

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For other uses, see Natural history (disambiguation).
"Naturalist" redirects here. For other uses, see Naturalist (disambiguation).

Cyclopaedia
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Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is called a naturalist or natural historian.

Natural history encompasses

cross-discipline umbrella of many specialty sciences; e.g., geobiology
has a strong multidisciplinary nature.

Definitions

Before 1900

The meaning of the English term "natural history" (a calque of the Latin historia naturalis) has narrowed progressively with time, while, by contrast, the meaning of the related term "nature" has widened (see also History below).

In antiquity, "natural history" covered essentially anything connected with nature, or used materials drawn from nature, such as Pliny the Elder's encyclopedia of this title, published c. 77 to 79 AD, which covers astronomy, geography, humans and their technology, medicine, and superstition, as well as animals and plants.

Medieval European academics considered knowledge to have two main divisions: the

science society meetings such as the Royal Society and the French Academy of Sciences
—both founded during the 17th century.

Natural history had been encouraged by practical motives, such as Linnaeus' aspiration to improve the economic condition of Sweden.[3] Similarly, the Industrial Revolution prompted the development of geology to help find useful mineral deposits.[4]

Since 1900

A natural history collection in a French public secondary school

Modern definitions of natural history come from a variety of fields and sources, and many of the modern definitions emphasize a particular aspect of the field, creating a plurality of definitions with a number of common themes among them. For example, while natural history is most often defined as a type of observation and a subject of study, it can also be defined as a body of knowledge, and as a craft or a practice, in which the emphasis is placed more on the observer than on the observed.[5]

Definitions from biologists often focus on the scientific study of individual organisms in their environment, as seen in this definition by Marston Bates: "Natural history is the study of animals and Plants—of organisms. ... I like to think, then, of natural history as the study of life at the level of the individual—of what plants and animals do, how they react to each other and their environment, how they are organized into larger groupings like populations and communities"[6] and this more recent definition by D.S. Wilcove and T. Eisner: "The close observation of organisms—their origins, their evolution, their behavior, and their relationships with other species".[7]

This focus on organisms in their environment is also echoed by H.W. Greene and J.B. Losos: "Natural history focuses on where organisms are and what they do in their environment, including interactions with other organisms. It encompasses changes in internal states insofar as they pertain to what organisms do".[8]

Some definitions go further, focusing on direct observation of organisms in their environments, both past and present, such as this one by G.A. Bartholomew: "A student of natural history, or a naturalist, studies the world by observing plants and animals directly. Because organisms are functionally inseparable from the environment in which they live and because their structure and function cannot be adequately interpreted without knowing some of their evolutionary history, the study of natural history embraces the study of fossils as well as physiographic and other aspects of the physical environment".[9]

A common thread in many definitions of natural history is the inclusion of a descriptive component, as seen in a recent definition by H.W. Greene: "Descriptive ecology and ethology".[10] Several authors have argued for a more expansive view of natural history, including S. Herman, who defines the field as "the scientific study of plants and animals in their natural environments. It is concerned with levels of organization from the individual organism to the ecosystem, and stresses identification, life history, distribution, abundance, and inter-relationships.

It often and appropriately includes an esthetic component",[11] and T. Fleischner, who defines the field even more broadly, as "A practice of intentional, focused attentiveness and receptivity to the more-than-human world, guided by honesty and accuracy".[12] These definitions explicitly include the arts in the field of natural history, and are aligned with the broad definition outlined by B. Lopez, who defines the field as the "Patient interrogation of a landscape" while referring to the natural history knowledge of the Eskimo (Inuit).[13]

A slightly different framework for natural history, covering a similar range of themes, is also implied in the scope of work encompassed by many leading natural history museums, which often include elements of anthropology, geology, paleontology, and astronomy along with botany and zoology,[14][15] or include both cultural and natural components of the world.[16]

The plurality of definitions for this field has been recognized as both a weakness and a strength, and a range of definitions has recently been offered by practitioners in a recent collection of views on natural history.[17]

History

Ancient

Blackberry from the sixth-century Vienna Dioscurides
manuscript

Natural history begins with Aristotle and other ancient philosophers who analyzed the diversity of the natural world. Natural history was understood by Pliny the Elder to cover anything that could be found in the world, including living things, geology, astronomy, technology, art, and humanity.[18]

De Materia Medica was written between 50 and 70 AD by Pedanius Dioscorides, a Roman physician of Greek origin. It was widely read for more than 1,500 years until supplanted in the Renaissance
, making it one of the longest-lasting of all natural history books.

From the

Great Chain of Being, an arrangement of minerals, vegetables, more primitive forms of animals, and more complex life forms on a linear scale of supposedly increasing perfection, culminating in our species.[19]

Medieval

Natural history was basically static through the

Historiae animalium), Frederik Ruysch, and Gaspard Bauhin.[20] The rapid increase in the number of known organisms prompted many attempts at classifying and organizing species into taxonomic groups, culminating in the system of the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus.[20]

The British historian of Chinese science Joseph Needham calls Li Shizhen "the 'uncrowned king' of Chinese naturalists",[This quote needs a citation] and his Bencao gangmu "undoubtedly the greatest scientific achievement of the Ming".[This quote needs a citation] His works translated to many languages direct or influence many scholars and researchers.[citation needed]

Modern

Histoire naturelle, a 44-volume encyclopedia describing quadrupeds, birds, minerals, and some science and technology. Reptiles and fish were covered in supplements by Bernard Germain de Lacépède
.

A significant contribution to English natural history was made by parson-naturalists such as Gilbert White, William Kirby, John George Wood, and John Ray, who wrote about plants, animals, and other aspects of nature. Many of these men wrote about nature to make the natural theology argument for the existence or goodness of God.[21] Since early modern times, however, a great number of women made contributions to natural history, particularly in the field of botany, be it as authors, collectors, or illustrators.[22]

In modern Europe, professional disciplines such as botany, geology,

palaeontology, physiology, and zoology were formed. Natural history, formerly the main subject taught by college science professors, was increasingly scorned by scientists of a more specialized manner and relegated to an "amateur" activity, rather than a part of science proper. In Victorian Scotland, the study of natural history was believed to contribute to good mental health.[23] Particularly in Britain and the United States, this grew into specialist hobbies such as the study of birds, butterflies, seashells (malacology/conchology), beetles, and wildflowers; meanwhile, scientists tried to define a unified discipline of biology (though with only partial success, at least until the modern evolutionary synthesis). Still, the traditions of natural history continue to play a part in the study of biology, especially ecology (the study of natural systems involving living organisms and the inorganic components of the Earth's biosphere that support them), ethology (the scientific study of animal behavior), and evolutionary biology
(the study of the relationships between life forms over very long periods of time), and re-emerges today as integrative organismal biology.

Amateur collectors and natural history entrepreneurs played an important role in building the world's large natural history collections, such as the Natural History Museum, London, and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

Three of the greatest English naturalists of the 19th century,

Malay archipelago
, among others—and in so doing helped to transform biology from a descriptive to a theory-based science.

The understanding of "Nature" as "an organism and not as a mechanism" can be traced to the writings of Alexander von Humboldt (Prussia, 1769–1859). Humboldt's copious writings and research were seminal influences for Charles Darwin, Simón Bolívar, Henry David Thoreau, Ernst Haeckel, and John Muir.[24]

Museums

Further information: List of natural history museums

Natural history museums, which evolved from cabinets of curiosities, played an important role in the emergence of professional biological disciplines and research programs. Particularly in the 19th century, scientists began to use their natural history collections as teaching tools for advanced students and the basis for their own morphological research.

Societies

The monument of Jan Czekanowski, a president of Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists (1923–1924), in Szczecin
, Poland

The term "natural history" alone, or sometimes together with archaeology, forms the name of many national, regional, and local natural history societies that maintain records for

geological and microscopical
sections.

Examples of these societies in Britain include the

Britain. (See also: Indian natural history
)

Societies in other countries include the American Society of Naturalists and Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists.

See also

References

  1. ^ With "natural history" articles more often published today in science magazines than in academic journals.(Natural History WordNet Search, princeton.edu Archived 2012-03-03 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ISBN 0-19-861271-0
  3. ISBN 978-0-674-09745-2
    .
  4. ^ Barry Barnes and Steven Shapin, "Natural order: historical studies of scientific culture", Sage, 1979.
  5. ^ Thomas Lowe Fleischner, The Way of Natural History, Trinity University Press, 2011.
  6. ^ Marston Bates, The nature of natural history, Scribners, 1954.
  7. ^ D. S Wilcove and T. Eisner, "The impending extinction of natural history," Chronicle of Higher Education 15 (2000): B24
  8. ^ H. W. Greene and J. B. Losos, "Systematics, Natural-History, and Conservation—Field Biologists Must Fight a Public-Image Problem," Bioscience 38 (1988): 458–462
  9. ^ G. A. Bartholomew, "The Role of Natural History in Contemporary Biology", Bioscience 36 (1986): 324–329
  10. ^ H.W. Greene, "Organisms in nature as a central focus for biology", Trends in Ecology & Evolution 20 (2005):23–27
  11. ^ S. G Herman, "Wildlife biology and natural history: time for a reunion", The Journal of wildlife management 66, no. 4 (2002): 933–946
  12. ^ T. L. Fleischner, "Natural history and the spiral of offering", Wild Earth 11, no. 3/4 (2002): 10–13
  13. ^ Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams, Vintage, 1986.
  14. ^ American Museum of Natural History, Mission Statement Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ Field Museum, Mission Statement Archived 2012-01-03 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ The Natural History Museum, Mission Statement Archived 2014-12-27 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ An Accepted Way of Viewing Art
  18. ISBN 978-0-14-044413-1
    .
  19. ISBN 0-674-36153-9
  20. ^ a b "Natural History Timeline Archived 2010-12-31 at the Wayback Machine". HistoryofScience.com.
  21. ISBN 978-0-85244-516-7
    . Retrieved 31 March 2013.
  22. ^ "Women in Botany". Archived from the original on 2019-09-03. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
  23. PMID 18761284
  24. ^ Andrea Wulf (2015),The Invention of Nature, Knopf[page needed]
  25. ^ "Whitby Naturalists' Club". whitbynaturalists.co.uk. Retrieved January 23, 2018.
  26. ^ Mabbett, Andy (20 November 2010). "Older Organisations". West Midland Bird Club. Archived from the original on 23 May 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)

Further reading

Library resources about
Natural history

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Natural history.
Wikisource has original works on the topic: Natural History and Biology
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