The Paper Road: Archive and Experience in the Botanical Exploration of West China and Tibet

by Erik Mueggler

Overview

This exhilarating book interweaves the stories of two early twentieth-century botanists to explore the collaborative relationships each formed with Yunnan villagers in gathering botanical specimens from the borderlands between China, Tibet, and Burma. Erik Mueggler introduces Scottish botanist George Forrest, who employed Naxi adventurers in his fieldwork from 1906 until his death in 1932. We also meet American Joseph Francis Charles Rock, who, in 1924, undertook a dangerous expedition to Gansu and Tibet with the sons and nephews of Forrest’s workers. Mueggler describes how the Naxi workers and their Western employers rendered the earth into specimens, notes, maps, diaries, letters, books, photographs, and ritual manuscripts. Drawing on an ancient metaphor of the earth as a book, Mueggler provides a sustained meditation on what can be copied, translated, and revised and what can be folded back into the earth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520269026
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	11/02/2011
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Erik Mueggler is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. He is the author of The Age of Wild Ghosts: Memory, Violence, and Place in Southwest China (UC Press).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration

Introduction

Part I
1. The Eyes of Others
2. Farmers and Kings
3. The Paper Road
4. The Golden Mountain Gate

Part II
5. Bodies Real and Virtual
6. Lost Worlds
7. The Mountain
8. Adventurers
9. The Book of the Earth

Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"First things first: this is an outstanding book. . . . Mueggler weaves together . . . a lyrically-written story."—New Bks
In East Asian Stds

"This work provides the reader with a remarkable look into another place and culture in a time gone by."—Chicago Botanic Garden

Editorial Reviews

"Erik Mueggler has given us a book about the earth, and it is an exquisite and evocative text. I have eagerly begun the process of recommending it widely to scholars . . . with passions every bit as diverse as the subject matter of this beautifully crafted narrative."

The British Journal for the History of Science - Thomas S. Mullaney

"There is no question that this is a superb book. It is bold, innovative, stylish, and captivating."

The Journal of Asian Studies - Fa-ti Fan

First things first: this is an outstanding book. . . . Mueggler weaves together . . . a lyrically-written story.

New Bks Ícaro|Ícaro|Ícaro|In East Asian Stds

A richly textured history. . . . The book will provide lively, informative reading for ambitious readers and specialists. . . . Highly recommended.

Choice - J.W. Dauben

First things first: this is an outstanding book. . . . Mueggler weaves together . . . a lyrically-written story.

New Bks In East Asian Stds

This work provides the reader with a remarkable look into another place and culture in a time gone by.

Chicago Botanic Garden - Marilyn K. Alaimo

"First things first: this is an outstanding book. . . . Mueggler weaves together . . . a lyrically-written story."--New Bks In East Asian Stds

"This work provides the reader with a remarkable look into another place and culture in a time gone by."--Chicago Botanic Garden

"A richly textured history. . . . The book will provide lively, informative reading for ambitious readers and specialists. . . . Highly recommended."--Choice

From the Publisher