Early scientific expeditions and local encounters - new perspectives on Carsten Niebuhr and the "The Arabian journey"

About this book

The publisher writes: Rise to publish this book's 250-year anniversary of the Royal Danish expedition to Arabia in the years 1761 to 1767. The work consists of a preamble and 14 articles, written by various experts. They examine each new aspects of the Danish expedition methods and results. From the 1700s onwards did Europeans terrestrial scientific travel, and that meant more and longer meetings between locals and visitors researchers. A number of these meetings are discussed in the book. Other articles examine the scientific questions that expeditions and travelers were sent out to solve, and describes how the travelers brought their observations back to Europe and got them communicated to other researchers and the interested public. Participants in the Danish expedition to Arabia, especially Niebuhr and naturalist Forsskål, was characterized by respect for the locals, they met on their journey. It was no ordinary position at that time. Their methods of exploration of local knowledge marked something new in the study of foreign cultures and their interaction with nature.