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Beauty or Statistics : Practice and Science in Dutch Livestock Breeding, 1900-2000 / Bert Theunissen.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2020]Copyright date: ©2020Description: 1 online resource (288 p.) : 24 b&w illustrationsContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781487507008
  • 9781487535384
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 636.08/2 23
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Summary: In the 1970s, scientists claimed that farm animal breeding was finally evolving from an art into a science. In their view, the switch to scientific breeding was as inevitable as the ongoing process of agricultural modernization. However, the art-to-science scenario is too simplistic to do justice to the complex dynamic that characterized the transformation of the field. The livestock breeds that take centre stage in this book - dairy cattle, chickens, pigs, sheep, and horses - were products of the twentieth century. The methods used by breeders to improve their animals, however, were much older. Tracing the history of practical stockbreeding, the role of Mendelism in scientific breeding, and the emergence of quantitative genetics, Beauty or Statistics shows that the story of the scientific modernization of livestock breeding can be more fruitfully analyzed from the perspective of changing cultures of breeding, taking practical, commercial, normative, and aesthetic considerations into account.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781487535384

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

In the 1970s, scientists claimed that farm animal breeding was finally evolving from an art into a science. In their view, the switch to scientific breeding was as inevitable as the ongoing process of agricultural modernization. However, the art-to-science scenario is too simplistic to do justice to the complex dynamic that characterized the transformation of the field. The livestock breeds that take centre stage in this book - dairy cattle, chickens, pigs, sheep, and horses - were products of the twentieth century. The methods used by breeders to improve their animals, however, were much older. Tracing the history of practical stockbreeding, the role of Mendelism in scientific breeding, and the emergence of quantitative genetics, Beauty or Statistics shows that the story of the scientific modernization of livestock breeding can be more fruitfully analyzed from the perspective of changing cultures of breeding, taking practical, commercial, normative, and aesthetic considerations into account.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 01. Nov 2023)