Otherwhere Ethnography

Istvan Praet lectures anthropology at Durham University. Trained in social anthropology, he focuses on modern modes of knowledge, and on astrobiology more specifically. Astrobiology is the umbrella term for the endeavour to understand life at a cosmic level, and encompasses a wide spectrum of disciplines ranging from astronomy and microbiology to geochemistry and planetary science. His research is based on multi-sited ethnographic research conducted in Western Europe and the US since 2010. It concentrates on how scientists involved in contemporary space exploration make the alien familiar and vice versa, and it shows how they remake objectivity itself in the process. He previously worked at Oxford, where he obtained his doctorate in 2006, Paris (Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale), Cambridge, and London (Roehampton). Perig Pitrou is an anthropologist, and a CNRS senior researcher at the Maison Française d'Oxford. He coordinates the "Anthropology of Life" research team at theLaboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale (Collège de France, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres). His recent work is situated at the interface between biotechnology and society; it connects biopolitics, ecologies of life, and science and technology studies. In recent years, he has focused on developing novel ways to link the space sciences with the social sciences and the humanities. With Charlotte Bigg, he is a principal researcher on the PEPR Origins project, a major, ANR-funded collaboration with astrobiologists, planetary scientists, and astronomers. Previously, he has carried out a long-term ethnographical investigation in Mexico to study the conceptions of life and wellbeing and the relations with the natural environment in Amerindian communities.

• Acknowledgments List of Contributors Perig Pitrou and Istvan Praet: Introduction: Otherwhere Ethnography, a Means to Reimagine Contemporary Space Exploration Part I Provincializing the Space Age: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on the Exploration of Outer Space 1: Lisa Messeri;Valerie Olson: Spaced Out: Bringing Outer Spaces into Anthropological Conversations 2: Luis A. Campos: Blue Vegetation on the Red Planet: Soviet Astrobotany and Earthly Analogs for Life on Mars 3: Istvan Praet: Styles of Contemporary Space Exploration: Columbian and Vespuccian Modes of Researching Alien Worlds 4: David Valentine: Provincializing Earth: Grounding and Writing Acknowledgments from Otherwheres in the Cosmos 5: Davide Chinigò;Cherryl Walker: Knowledge Frontiers: Shaping African Futures Through the Square Kilometre Array Part II Otherwhere Ethnographies: Analogs, Instruments, Artifacts, Viruses, and Vegetables 6: Zara Mirmalek: Between a Rock and a Hard Space: On Instrument Time and Communication in BASALT 7: Aaron Parkhurst;David Jeevendrampillai: The Restaurant at the End of the World 8: Valentina Marcheselli: "Welcome to Planet Mars": Analog-Making in Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences 9: Victor Buchli: Artifacts of Attunement 10: Stefan Helmreich: Space Virus 2020 Notes References Index