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This dissertation is an exploration of the various ways in which knowledge practitioners come to know about a subject. Using four case studies of marine experts--government-based invertebrate biologists, a university-based team of contaminant ecologists, Kwakiutl (or Kwakwaka'wakw) First Nations (Native American) clam diggers, and Nuu Chah Nulth First Nations clam diggers--I explore the processes and practices by which these practitioners produced knowledge about clams. The case studies are based on ethnographic research I conducted between 2003 and 2005. Drawing on tenets espoused by the Strong Programme in the Sociology of Science, I use a balanced (symmetrical) framework to compare the 4 sets of knowledge practitioners' social relations with their peers, the signs they use as evidence, the methods by which they order and summarize observations, their relationship to what they come to know, their interests, and the assumptions they make when drawing inferences. My theoretical arguments build on literature drawn from a wide spectrum including works from the sociology of science, sociology of culture and cognition, cognitive anthropology, cognitive psychology, and human ecology. Themes running throughout the dissertation include standardization, precision, the situated body and cognition, community, temporality, and multiplicity. |
