''Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures'' is an

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

edited by

Helaine Selin Helaine Selin (born 1946) is an American librarian, historian of science, author and the editor of several bestselling books. Career Selin attended Binghamton University, where she earned her bachelor's degree. She received her MLS from SUNY Al ...

and published by

Kluwer Academic Publishers Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...

in 1997, with a second edition in 2008, and third edition in 2016.

Summary

From the Preface: :The purpose of the ''Encyclopaedia'' is to bring together knowledge of many disparate fields in one place to legitimize the study of other cultures' science... The Western academic divisions of science, technology and medicine have been united in the ''Encyclopaedia'' because in ancient cultures these disciplines were connected. The first edition (1997) has 600 articles by a range of experts. The arrangement is alphabetical from "Abacus" to "Zu Chongzi". It includes an index from page 1079 to page 1117.

K. V. Sarma K. V. Venkateswara Sarma (1919–2005) was an Indian historian of science, particularly the astronomy and mathematics of the Kerala school. He was responsible for bringing to light several of the achievements of the Kerala school. He was edito ...

contributed 35 articles, Greg De Young 13, Boris A. Rosenfeld 12, and Emilia Calvo and Ho Peng Yoke 11 each. Fabrizio Pregadio contributed 10 articles, Julio Samo wrote 9, and Richard Bertschinger, Radha Charan Gupta and David A. King wrote 8 each. Dozens of other contributors wrote fewer articles. In 2008 the ''Encyclopaedia'' was split into two volumes and extended to 1000 articles for a second edition.Springer
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Reviews

* Toby E. Huff (1999) Review: EHSTMNC,

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

90(2):410,1 : "A splendid piece of joint scholarship, and some would say long overdue." : Huff counts nineteen entries on maps and map making, five on geometry, eleven on environment, four on city planning, five on east-west issues, six on colonialism, six on textile technology, ten on weights and measures * Jensine Andresen (1999) Review: EHSTMNC,

Zygon The Zygons are an extraterrestrial race in the long-running British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. The Zygons have shape-shifting abilities, allowing them to replicate the appearance of another being. Limited by the sma ...

: Dispels the illusion that "members of non-Western cultures have offered only marginal contributions to the rigorous investigation of the natural world". : "Catalyzes a thorough reconsideration of the scope of the ideational nexus influencing the interaction between religion and science in the West." : Andresen characterizes the contributors an "iconoclastic bunch". *

Sujit Sivasundaram Sujit Sivasundaram is a British Sri Lankan historian and academic. He is currently professor of world history at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge. Early life Sivasundaram was born in Sri Lanka. He is the great grand son of Law ...

(2010) Review: EHSTMNC second edition,

The British Journal for the History of Science ''The British Journal for the History of Science'' (a.k.a. ''BJHS'') is an international academic journal published quarterly by Cambridge University Press in association with the British Society for the History of Science. It was founded under ...

: "Turning points in the European historical narrative are being contextualized within other senses of chronology and space, and so decentralized from their mythic status as events in the birth of modern science." : The second edition shifts "from advocacy to analysis". The reviewer considers the term ''Non-Western'' to be outdated, particularly as

ethnobotany Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for m ...

regions proliferate, and Europe is excluded except as the colonizer.

References

{{reflist

External links

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WorldCat
Encyclopedias of science 1997 non-fiction books History books about science Historiography of technology History books about medicine