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Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za
CompiledbytheSocialCohesionandIdentityResearchProgrammeofthe
HumanSciencesResearchCouncilinassociationwiththeAfricaGenomeEducationInstitute
PublishedbyHSRCPress
PrivateBagX9182,CapeTown,8000,SouthAfrica
www.hsrcpress.ac.za
©2006HumanSciencesResearchCouncil
Firstpublished2005
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedorutilisedin
anyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,includingphotocopying
andrecording,orinanyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermission
inwritingfromthepublishers.
ISBN0-7969-2134-2
CopyeditingbyNiccolaPerez
DesignedandtypesetbyRichardMason
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Contents
Introduction 5
Section1: VisualLiteracy 9
Whatisvisualliteracyandwhyshouldwestudyit?
9
Howarescientificimagescreated?
13
Typesofscientificimages
16
Section2: EvolutionaryIconography 21
Amoeba-to-man
21
TheTreeofLife
24
TheDoubleHelix:amodernicon
26
Genomesequencingmaps
28
Mutation
28
Section3: DevelopmentofNewIcons 31
ThenewTreeofLife
31
Section4: LiteratureReview 33
Section5: Glossary 37
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5
Introduction
Practical,everydayknowledgeisdifferentinstructureand
purpose from what we call ‘scientific’ knowledge. The
distinctionisnot new.Inpre-modernsocietiestherewas
a similardistinction between thepractical knowledge re
-
quiredforeverydayactivityontheonehandandreligious
understandingontheother.Religionwasrequiredtopro
-
videanswerstothebigquestionswhichfaceevery form
ofsocial life: ‘Who are we?Wherehave wecomefrom?
Wherearewegoing?’Undermodernconditionswelookto
scienceforanswerstothesesamequestionsandthemul
-
titudeofotherswhichspinoutfromthesebasicconcerns
– questions abouthuman difference, about suffering and
pain,aboutthebestwaystodevelopresourcesforlifeand
thebestwaystoorganisesociallife.
Science has been exceptionally successful in uncovering
potentialanswerstothesecriticalquestionsanditisoften
thoughtthatsciencehasdisplacedreligiousinterpretations
oftheworld.Scienceandreligiondodifferincrucialways
(mostnotablyinwhateachwillacceptasthestandardfor
truth)but itis important to recognise that,in knowledge
terms,theysharesomeimportantcommonfeatures.Emile
Durkheim,thegreatFrenchsociologist,classifiedbothsci
-
enceandreligionasformsof‘sacred’knowledge–distin
-
guishing both from the practical everyday understanding
whichhecalled‘profane’knowledge.Heintended‘sacred’
to give a strictly social description to the form of knowl
-
edgewhichbothreligionandscienceshared.Hesawthem
both as systems of related but unobservable concepts.
Theywereunobservable in thesensethattheywerenot
tiedtoanyparticulareventsorfacts.Moreovertheywere
objective in the sense that they were shared, social un
-
derstandings, external to the perceptions of individuals,
and therefore experienced by people as relatively fixed
and unchanging.Science and religion occupied the same
‘knowledge-space’insociallife;theystoodtogetherintheir
mannerofinterpretinglifealthoughtheydifferedsharplyin
thecontentandprocedureoftheirinterpretations.Science
demandsempiricalevidence;religioninsistsonthedivine
revelationoftruth.
This book is about science and the ways we have of
understandingitssystemsofconcepts.Whatdowemean
whenwesaythatthesesystemsareunobservable?How,
ifthatistrue,canwethengraspthemeaningsembedded
inscientificwork?
It is clear the debates and advances in modern science,
especiallyinthefieldofevolutionandgenetics,havebeen
slowto reach SouthAfrican classrooms.Yetin the world
beyondtheschool,teachersandstudentsbecomeaware
of fresh thought and new discoveries through the mass
media.Frequentlytheseideasarebeingpresentedthrough
compellingimages.Inthepopularmediathe‘sacred’knowl
-
edgeofscienceismostpowerfullyevokedthroughtheuse
ofimages.Writtenscientificreportsaredense,lengthyand
complicated, butimages are able to carry complex infor
-
mationinasingleperspective.Butwehavetolearnhow
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6
toreadimages.Wehavetobecomevisuallyliterateifwe
aretodecodethelayersofinformationwhichimageshold
together and the worry is that those of us without
adequatevisualliteracyskillsmaynotbeabletointerpret
andcriticallyjudgetheseimagesforourselves.
Thehistorical Churchfacedan inverse of the same prob
-
lem in the times before ordinary people had learned to
readwrittenlanguagetexts.TheChurchitselftaughtvisual
literacy.Imagesof the saints and especially of the life of
Jesus and the prophets, provided the means of carrying
thetruthsofreligionintothelivesofordinaryfolk.Thecre
-
ation and interpretation of images became a prized skill.
Images were employed to teach the most complex doc
-
trinal issues – among them the nature of theTrinity, the
meaning and process of virgin birth, and above all, the
significance for the human world of the crucifixion.The
great visual interpreters were the artists and architects
whose work is preserved still in the great religious art
and architecture of the past.We, in our time, have well-
developedskillsinwritingandreadingwordsbutwehave
torelearntheskillsofreadingimages.
This book about scientific visual literacy focuses on the
mostdynamicareaofcontemporaryhumandiscovery.The
theory of evolution, though long established in its basic
terms,hasseendramaticnewdevelopmentsincethedis
-
coveryofthestructureofDNA.
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Fourrelatedaimsguidethebook
1. Tobringteachersintocontactwithcurrent
evolutionarytheoryanddebate
2.Toimprovetheteachingofmolecularbiology
3.Toconveythecomplexitiesofevolutionthrough
visualmeans
4.Toconveyanunderstandingofthefunction
ofvisualicons.
Thebookisgroundedinacriticalexaminationoftheimag
-
esandiconsofevolutionastheyappearinscientificandin
popularcontexts.Intheprocessitwillseektobuildvisual
andscientificliteracyskillswhichwillprovidethemeansto
readthevisualswithaccuracyanddepthofinterpretation.
Thebookisdividedintofivesections:
Section1 VisualLiteracy
Section2 EvolutionaryIconography
Section3 DevelopmentofNewIcons
Section4 LiteratureReview
Section5 Glossary
Section1posesthreequestions:
1. Whatisvisualliteracyandwhyshouldwestudyit?
2.Howarescientificimagescreated?
3.Typesofscientificimages
Section2focusesoniconsthatrelatespecificallyto
thetheoryandconceptsofevolution.Fivesuchicons
andtheircontexts-of-useareidentified:
1.Amoeba-to-man Scientific/specialised/popular
2.TreeofLife Scientific/specialisedprint
3.DoubleHelix Popularscience/illustration
4.Genomesequencing
Specialised/computer
generated
5.Mutation Film,graphicnovels&web
Theseiconswillbecriticallyexaminedintheirhistoricaland
contemporarycontexts.
Note: It is assumed thatboth teachers and students will
alreadyhave someknowledgeofthe iconsand that they
willalsobereadilyaccessibleforfurtherstudy.
Section3usestheissuesarisingfromtheprecedingcriti
-
cal analysisas a wayto develop a newTree of Lifeicon.
Thisiconisnotexpectedtobeperfectrepresentations.The
aimistohighlightmisconceptionsandsimplicitiesevident
in current icons and to generate debate around current
evolutionary theories and the broader questions of visual
literacy.
Section4liststhereferencematerialusedinmakingthis
book.Ashortsummaryofthecontentcoveredineachlist
-
edbookwillbegiven.Thiswillassistfurtherresearchinto
thethemespresentedinthisbook.
Section5givesaglossaryofimportanttermsusedinthe
book.
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9
Section1:VisualLiteracy
Whatisvisualliteracyandwhyshould
westudyit?
Visualliteracyistheabilitytoreadandunderstandimages
inawaywhichissimilartothewayonereadsandunder
-
standswrittentextmaterial.Inourfirstyearsofschooling
wearetaughttoreadandwritewords.Welearntocom
-
posemeaningsbyinterpretingtherelationsbetweensets
ofsignsappearinginsequenceonapageofpaper.How
-
ever,wearenottaughttoreadimagesortodrawexcept
perhapstoillustrateourownworkwithattractiveimages.
Suchimagesaresecondarytothe writtenwordsandare
notgiventhesamelevelofcriticalattention.Classifiedas
either‘expression’or‘art’theyarenotintendedtoconvey
complexideas or concepts in themselves–thatisunder
-
stoodtobethetaskofthewriting.Thereisanassumption
thatvisual literacy willdevelop‘naturally’andno focused
attentionisgiventoteachingtheskillsinschool.Infactlittle
valueisattachedtothecapabilityitself.
Itiseasytoseethatasstudentsprogressthroughschool
imagesgraduallyfadefromtheirbooksandtextbooks.The
sametrend,awayfromimagesandtowardprintedwords,
is echoed outside of the classroom. Children’sbooks are
bright and colourful with manyimages while adult books
onlyveryrarelycontainimages.
However, in the Life Sciences images continue to carry
power and authority. Images remain in the form of
diagramsordrawingsdevelopedforspecificinterpretative
purposes.Theyareconsideredindispensableforcommuni
-
catingideasandconceptsandtheyarenotseenasmere
illustrativesupplements to written texts.But the skills to
grasptheirfullmeaningoftenremainbeyondthestudents’
(andteachers’)capacities.Thereasonisthattheyhavenot
beengiventheopportunitytolearntoreadorvalueimages
inasimilarwaytowrittentext.Students(andteachers)are
thereforenotabletodrawonasourceofinformationwhich
iscriticaltoanunderstandingoftheLifeSciences.
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10
Visual literacy is certainly important in the Life Sciences
classroombutitsvalueforapersonextendsintotheworld
wellbeyondtheschoolwalls.Avastamountofinformation
iscommunicatedtousdailythroughthemassmedia.This
information comes to us primarily through images which
arebeingusedwitheverincreasingfrequency.Abrieflook
througha magazine or newspaperwill reveal a wealthof
images,diagramsandothergraphicelements.Advertisers
inparticularhaverealisedthepowerofimagestocommu
-
nicate with amass audience.Many contemporary adver
-
tisingcampaignsrevolvearoundasingle,carefullycrafted
image,andwords,ifthereareanyatall,playonlyasupport
-
iverole.Thisisespeciallythecaseinmultilingualcontexts.
While it is true that we intuitively learn to read these
imagesthroughsimplerepetition,oftenthisformofunder
-
standingremainssuperficialorunconscious.Becausewe
lackthenecessaryskillswearenotabletoengagecritically
withtheimageandunlockitsfullmeaning.
Weneedtomakeanimportantdistinctionbetween‘look
-
ing’ and ‘seeing’. ‘Looking’ is a physical process – the
image of a tree falls on the surface of the retina of our
eye.Itisapassiveevent.‘Seeing’ontheotherhandisan
activeprocessmediatedbythemind.Inseeing,theimage
ontheretinaisconsciouslygraspedandinterpretedinthe
processesofthemind.Untutored,wecanlookatanimage
butseenothing.Visualliteracyisaskillthatrequiresboth
lookingandseeing.Interpretingandunderstandingimages
(i.e.‘seeingthemactively’)playsacriticalcommunicative
roleinbothscientificandpopularcontexts.Tounderstand
thecommunicativepowerofimages(andtheimportance
ofvisualliteracy)weneedtoaskwhatmakesimagesso
‘special’? Why are they so effective in communicating
complexconcepts?
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. colourful with many images while adult books onlyveryrarelycontain images. However, in the Life Sciences images continue to carry power and authority. Images remain in. past.We, in our time, have well- developedskillsinwritingand reading wordsbutwehave torelearntheskillsof reading images. This book about scientific visual literacy focuses on. www.hsrcpress.ac.za 9 Section1:VisualLiteracy Whatisvisualliteracyandwhyshould westudyit? Visualliteracyistheabilitytoreadandunderstand images inawaywhichissimilartothewayonereadsandunder - standswrittentextmaterial.Inourfirstyearsofschooling wearetaughttoreadandwritewords.Welearntocom - posemeaningsbyinterpretingtherelationsbetweensets ofsignsappearinginsequenceonapageofpaper.How - ever,wearenottaughttoread images ortodrawexcept perhapstoillustrateourownworkwithattractive images. Such images aresecondarytothe writtenwordsandare notgiventhesamelevelofcriticalattention.Classifiedas either‘expression’or‘art’theyarenotintendedtoconvey complexideas
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