Humanism and the Ingenious Machine: Richard Ligon's True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados.
This essay argues that Ligon's History represents Barbados as a space where the ontological blending of organisms and mechanisms is a fundamental aspect of the natural world, and it suggests that the recognition of this fact would lead to a more productive and ethical commonwealth. On the one hand,...
| Publicado en: | Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 95 - 123 |
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| Formato: | Essay |
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University of Pennsylvania Press
Winter2016
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=112928716&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 112928716 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 15310485 DBLW jtl: Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies issn: 15310485 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Winter2016 vid: 16 iid: 1 pid: 4636 pub: University of Pennsylvania Press artinfo: ui: 112928716 10.1353/jem.2016.0009 ppf: 95 ppct: 28 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 2.8MB tig: atl: Humanism and the Ingenious Machine: Richard Ligon's True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados. aug: au: MITSEIN, REBEKAH su: Humanism Sugar factories Working class Ligon, Richard Nature & artifice Early Modern Period (Literary period) Barbados sug: subj: Barbados Humanism Sugar factories Working class Ligon, Richard Nature & artifice Early Modern Period (Literary period) ab: This essay argues that Ligon's History represents Barbados as a space where the ontological blending of organisms and mechanisms is a fundamental aspect of the natural world, and it suggests that the recognition of this fact would lead to a more productive and ethical commonwealth. On the one hand, Ligon's description of the sugar mills characterizes the plantation laborers as an extension of the mills, seemingly reducing their identities to a mere mechanical function and inscribing their status as objectified commodities. Yet, on the other hand, he writes about both enslaved Africans and Indians as fundamental to the island, not just due to their labor power but to their ingenium as well-the essential human capacity that enables them to rationally engage with the natural world and drives them to create both art and knowledge. Despite the seeming contradiction of those views, this essay demonstrates that these two readings are not incompatible when they are considered as a consequence of an early modern worldview that imagined society as the product of an intersection between nature and artifice. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Essay src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies is the property of University of Pennsylvania Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies holder: University of Pennsylvania Press dt: @attributes: year: 2016 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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