Nature’s Body Londa Schiebinger

The Introduction 1.Why investigate natural history? 2.Why choose gender?

Chapter One 1.Why did plant sexuality become a priority in the 18 th century? 2.Why did sexuality become the key to classification? 3.What are Schiebinger’s two uses of gender in her analysis? What does she mean by implicit or explicit gender? 4.Why the sex and marriage metaphors? What were the cultural reasons? 5.What is Schiebinger’s point about metaphors in science? 6.Why no sexualization of plants in France? 7.What role did “radical politics” in the use and perception of these metaphors? 8.What curbed the use of these sexual metaphors?

Chapter Two 1.Why was the term mammalia used to classify animals? 2.What was the common term before mammalia? 3.What is the origin of the term mammalia? 4.What were the common historical connotations of the “breast” and breast-feeding” in western culture (pre-18 th century)? 5.How did breasts imply about female nature? 6.What cultural shifts occurred in the 1750s that altered the way one perceived of breast-feeding, breasts, and womanhood? 7.How might this has influenced Linnaeus? What evidence do we have?

Eugene Delacroix, “Liberty Leading the People,” 1830