Wild Spiders in Fragile Knowledge Networks: Spiders in Medicine, Natural History, and Silk Production in Eighteenth-Century Europe

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingChapterScientificpeer-review

Abstract

Spiders are the largest order of arachnids and undoubtedly the most charismatic of the arthropods. Before the development of early modern natural history and taxonomy, silk spinning and venom have been the most important components in traditional knowledge about spiders. These characteristics persisted, to some extent, in descriptions of spiders in eighteen century works of natural history. This chapter investigates knowledge about spiders in early modern Europe, with some focus on Sweden. The theoretical inspiration derives from the history of knowledge and the understanding that natural-historical knowledge is created in multispecies knowledge networks. Knowledge is understood to be formed in interactive processes where human and non-human actors are seen as co-constructors of knowledge. The chapter shows that the vulnerable part in the network was often the spider, or rather the relationship between humans and spiders, which was marked by human ignorance of how to cooperate with the spider in a successful way. Hence, while the objective is to examine the formation of knowledge about spiders, the aim is also to bring the spiders into the study, not simply as objects of knowledge, but as crucial parts of knowledge networks. The chapter draws on natural-historical works on insects and spiders from the first part of the eighteenth century.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHuman–Bug Encounters in Multispecies Networks
EditorsHollsten Laura, Latva Otto, Sanna Lillbroända-Annala, Suvi Rytty, Tuomas Räsänen
PublisherBrill
Pages109-127
Number of pages19
ISBN (Electronic)978-90-04-71544-8
ISBN (Print)978-90-04-68060-9
Publication statusPublished - Dec 1924
MoE publication typeA3 Part of a book or another research book

Keywords

  • Environmental history
  • Human animal studies
  • Insects
  • Arachnids

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