Science Culture and the Search for Life

on Other Worlds 1st Edition John W.

Traphagan
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/science-culture-and-the-search-for-life-on-other-world
s-1st-edition-john-w-traphagan/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Life-Span Development John W. Santrock

https://textbookfull.com/product/life-span-development-john-w-
santrock/

Life-Span Development Seventeenth Edition John W.

Santrock

https://textbookfull.com/product/life-span-development-
seventeenth-edition-john-w-santrock/

Goldilocks and the Water Bears The Search for Life in

the Universe Preston

https://textbookfull.com/product/goldilocks-and-the-water-bears-
the-search-for-life-in-the-universe-preston/

Studies on Ottoman Science and Culture 1st Edition

Ekmeleddin ■hsano■lu

https://textbookfull.com/product/studies-on-ottoman-science-and-
culture-1st-edition-ekmeleddin-ihsanoglu/
The Sumerian World Routledge Worlds 1st Edition
Harriet E. W. Crawford

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-sumerian-world-routledge-
worlds-1st-edition-harriet-e-w-crawford/

A topical approach to life-span development John W.

Santrock

https://textbookfull.com/product/a-topical-approach-to-life-span-
development-john-w-santrock/

An other kingdom: departing the consumer culture 1st

Edition Block

https://textbookfull.com/product/an-other-kingdom-departing-the-
consumer-culture-1st-edition-block/

Uncle Tom s Cabin on the American Stage and Screen 1st

Edition John W. Frick (Auth.)

https://textbookfull.com/product/uncle-tom-s-cabin-on-the-
american-stage-and-screen-1st-edition-john-w-frick-auth/

Temple of the Grail The Search for the World s Greatest

Relic John Matthews

https://textbookfull.com/product/temple-of-the-grail-the-search-
for-the-world-s-greatest-relic-john-matthews/
John W. Traphagan

Science, Culture
and the Search
for Life on
Other Worlds
Science, Culture and the Search for Life
on Other Worlds
 John W. Traphagan

Science, Culture
and the Search for Life
on Other Worlds
John W. Traphagan
Department of Religious Studies
Univ of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX, USA

ISBN 978-3-319-41744-8 ISBN 978-3-319-41745-5 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41745-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016946427

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is
concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic
adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does
not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective
laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are
believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors
give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions
that may have been made.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 For my dad
Thanks for letting me stay up to watch Star Trek…
 Acknowledgements

When one writes a book, there are many people who deserve thanks for their
willingness to read chapters, discuss ideas, provide editorial assistance, or give
ongoing support—and I’m always afraid I’ll forget someone. Even if you are
not mentioned here, please know that I’m deeply grateful to all who have
provided ideas that contributed to the writing of this book. The person I must
thank first and foremost is my father, Willis Traphagan, who gave me the idea
to write this book while we were chatting on the phone one day and who has
always been a source of deep and intelligent discussion.
My colleagues in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of
Texas also deserve my thanks and appreciation for the wonderfully collegial
environment they create on a daily basis and their patient tolerance for an
odd anthropologist with interests in aliens who sits in among them. Finally, of
course, I must thank my wife Tomoko, son Julian, and daughter Sarah, who
are always a source of strength and love.

vii
 Contents

1 Science and SETI 1

1.1 Foundations for Thinking about SETI:
Some Ideas and Assumptions 3
1.2 Thinking about Science 6
1.3 Understanding Science 13

2 A Brief History of Imagining Life on Other Worlds 17

2.1 Narrowing Imagination 19
2.2 Expanding Imagination 24
2.3 Modern Science and Cosmology 31
2.4 Imagining Life on Other Worlds 31
2.5 It Came From Outer Space 34
2.6 It Came From Earth, Too 39

3 Science and the Emergence of SETI 41

3.1 Humans Beyond Earth 43
3.2 Culture and the Drake Equation 47
3.3 SETI, Cultural Evolution, and Civilization 55

4 Dogs, Chimps, Humans, and Alien Intelligence 71

4.1 Intelligence and Communication 76
4.2 Culture and Indeterminacy 82
4.3 Culture as Collectivized Algorithms 90

ix
x Contents

4.4 What Does this Mean for SETI Research? 91

4.5 The Star Trek Imaginary 95
4.6 Symbols and Meaning 96

5 Knowledge Production in the Encounter with Alien Others 101

5.1 Alien Cultures and Anthropology 105
5.2 SETI, Imagination, and Research on Culture 110
5.3 Back to KIC 8462852 111
5.4 Alien Imaginaries, Native Imaginaries 116

6 Science, Culture, and SETI 121

6.1 SETI and Anthropomorphism 133
6.2 SETI and Ethnocentrism 136
6.3 SETI, Science, and Religion 138
6.4 Is SETI Science or Religion? 139
6.5 SETI and Western Religions 141
6.6 SETI and the Western Worldview 144

References 147

Index 155
 1
Science and SETI

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
—Albert Einstein

In October of 2015, news broke of a strange star about 1400 light years
from Earth known by the unromantic name KIC 8462852. A small storm
in the media brewed as a result of a paper written by the astronomers, led by
Yale postdoctoral fellow Tabetha Boyajian, who identified the strange star’s
behavior. The odd thing about KIC 8462852 is that over the course of weeks
or months it temporarily dims by as much as 80 % of its usual brightness.
Predictably, the news media dubbed KIC 8462852 the most mysterious star
in our galaxy, as though we actually knew enough about the galaxy to pick
one star as most mysterious. The problem with KIC 846285 is that it does
not act in a way that can be comfortably explained through known natural phe-
nomena. The astronomers who discovered the peculiar star’s behavior came up
with a few possible explanations, and landed on one fairly unsatisfying idea
that the dimming is due to cometary debris orbiting the star and periodically
obstructing a significant portion of the star’s light.
Part of the reason KIC 8462852 became so newsworthy was because it
emerged that Penn State astronomer Joshua Wright would soon publish a
paper suggesting another, much sexier, explanation. Perhaps, the occasional
dimming of KIC 8462852 might be caused by “megastructures” or giant
engineering projects that aliens had undertaken around the star. The megas-
tructures could be enormous habitats or massive collectors for vast amounts of
solar energy known as Dyson swarms. In other words, the strange case of KIC

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 1

J.W. Traphagan, Science, Culture and the Search for Life on Other Worlds,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41745-5_1
2 Science, Culture and the Search for Life on Other Worlds

8462852 might be the product of extraterrestrial intelligence and an extrater-

restrial civilization far more advanced than our own. The media loved it.
Unfortunately, when astronomers at the SETI Institute trained the Allen
Telescope Array on KIC 8462852 to see if we might detect any evidence of a
signal from the star, nothing was found. This doesn’t mean there aren’t mega-
structures there, but it does mean that if ET is building huge things around
KIC 8462852, either it isn’t sending any signals our way, or it uses a form
of communication that we can’t detect. In many ways, what is most inter-
esting about KIC 8462852 is not the potential presence of megastructures,
but what our reaction to that possibility tells us about ourselves. The story
of KIC 8462852 is really a story about humanity and the desire of some, at
least, to find some sign that we are not alone, that intelligence has happened
more than once in the galaxy and might even be common. The story of KIC
8462852 is about human imagination and how our imagination shapes the
ways we see the universe.
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) represents one of the
most significant crossroads where assumptions and methods of scientific
inquiry come into direct contact with aspirations and ideas about humanity
expressed in different cultures. In much the way that Star Trek depicts human
hopes about a future in which we have conquered the problems that plague
our planet today and places humanity as important in our neck of the galaxy,
SETI raises questions about the place of humanity in the universe. When we
look up at the sky and wonder about whether or not we are alone, a set of sub-
questions are either tacitly or overtly implicated: Are humans unique in the
cosmos? Is life abundant in the universe or is Earth a special place with a spe-
cial history? Is humanity’s presence in the universe significant or insignificant?
My goal in this book is to try to stand at the nexus of that crossroads and
think about the underlying assumptions, many of which are tacitly tied to
cultural values common in American society but which have also come to be
viewed as important in other cultures, that shape the ways in which SETI has
evolved as a science and come to represent ideas about the potential influence
contact might have on human civilization. Another way to put this is to ask,
what does thinking about ET tells us about ourselves? As we imagine the nature
of an extraterrestrial civilization, in what ways do we imprint our own ideas
about intelligence, civilization, and even life itself on those imaginative themes?
To accomplish this goal, I will explore ways that assumptions about human
civilization and culture have influenced the approach scientists working on
SETI take as they think about the features of an extraterrestrial intelligence
and our own civilization on Earth. Among the most common themes SETI
 1 Science and SETI 3

researchers use to contemplate both our own and an imagined extraterrestrial

civilization is cultural evolution, an idea that has been critiqued extensively
in anthropology, which also happens to be the discipline from which it was
born over 100 years ago. The power of the cultural evolution model is seen
frequently when SETI scientists comment on human civilization using terms
like “adolescence” or representing humanity as young in comparison to any
alien civilization we might encounter. What is usually missed in this formula-
tion is that the notion of adolescence is itself a cultural product and contains
tacit assumptions about the nature of both individual and cultural change
that point to a very linear understanding of the development of human social
organization. This concept then gets transmitted to ideas about the nature
and development of any alien civilization we might encounter. What we do
know is that while cultures evolve (meaning that they change) there is no
single linear path that they follow.
What will emerge from our exploration here is less a story of what SETI
tells us about ET than what it tells us about homo sapiens. The ways we think
about non-human intelligent creatures, just like the ways we think about non-
human animals, displays images of humanity as a species and uncovers our
tendency to infuse moral ideas into scientific thinking. Scientists engaged in
SETI work from a premise that their job is about discovery. To pursue the
path of discovery, there are expectations about methods of inquiry, record-
ing of data, and reporting of results, and these are fundamental elements of
SETI. However, like scientists in all fields, SETI scientists often also harbor
deep commitments to assumed moral and evaluative propositions. For SETI
scientists, these come in the form of beliefs about the importance of contact,
the nature of civilizations as being comparable on a scale of advancement, and
the relative inferiority of human civilization. In other words, the scientific
endeavor of searching for intelligence off of Earth is shaped by a very earthly
cultural context that contains moral propositions and assumptions not only
about who ET might be, but also what kind of being homo sapiens is.

1.1 Foundations for Thinking about SETI:

Some Ideas and Assumptions
In the remainder of this chapter, I want to think about some basic concepts
and ideas associated with SETI and consider how these are related to cultural
values. We will work on defining two very widely—and imprecisely—used
terms: science and culture. Before moving into that discussion, however, it
will be helpful to offer a few comments about my own assumptions and ideas
4 Science, Culture and the Search for Life on Other Worlds

when it comes to the nature of science. I view science as a cultural product.

By this I mean that the approach to understanding the world of scientific
inquiry is produced by a set of assumptions, particularly about the relation-
ship between subjective and objective realms of existence, that have shaped
Western scholarship and allowed for the development of the type of empirical
data collection and systematic methods of analysis we normally associate with
scientific inquiry. It’s important to recognize that both science and scientists
are embedded in cultural and social contexts that shape how they ask ques-
tions, determine which questions are important to ask, and respond to the
more philosophical components of their inquiries. These contexts can also
influence their interpretations of empirical data.
Science is a human activity closely tied to affluence; it’s a luxury item, par-
ticularly when it comes to pursuit of questions such as the existence of extra-
terrestrial intelligence. By luxury, I don’t mean extravagant, superfluous, and
an example of excess. Rather, science arises when there is sufficient wealth
for some people in a society to be occupied in activities well beyond mainte-
nance of basic human survival. This isn’t to say that scientists don’t contribute
something profoundly important to human society; rather my point is that
science can only exist as an institution in a context that can afford to have
certain people working in very specialized jobs—like leading research—while
others work to support those people. This is true for both physical and social
scientists. The ability to do what I do—get paid to think about the nature of
culture, society, science, and SETI—is a product of an affluent society that
can afford to have people engaged in thinking about how human social orga-
nization works. The fact that we can support the physical and social sciences
is a good thing because it provides a basis for building new ways of seeing the
world around us and also for reflexively contemplating who we are as a group
and as a species. But it’s still a luxury.
Why is this important? Because it creates a context in which the significance
of our work as scientists is experienced and evaluated. This is particularly true
when it comes to assumptions about the significance of SETI. Although I agree
with those involved with SETI research that contact with ETI would represent
a major moment in human history, it’s easy to ascribe more significance than
the event may warrant. I teach a course on SETI at the University of Texas at
Austin, which is one of the top research institutions in the US. Sometimes, I
ask students about Neil Armstrong. My students in this class, perhaps because
they are already interested in space, usually know who I’m talking about. In
other classes, it may be a 50–50 proposition on whether or not they can iden-
tify Armstrong. If I ask about Buzz Aldrin, a few will certainly know he was
the second man to step foot on the moon. But if I ask about Eugene Cernan,
 1 Science and SETI 5

I will get nothing but blank looks. Cernan, of course, was the last man to step
foot on the moon, but few remember that.
I witnessed the first moon landing, and the subsequent Apollo moon
missions. My students have only limited awareness about even Armstrong’s
historic step—arguably one of the most significant moments in human
history—and little or no idea about what happened after that step. Think
about this for a moment. There will never be another time in human history
when we step on a celestial object other than Earth for the first time. We’ve
done that; it cannot be repeated. Contact with ETI is the same sort of thing.
It will happen for the first time only once and then never again. It should be
one of the most significant points in our history. And, yet, it may well go the
way of the moon landings with their 15 min of fame followed by allocation to
the dusty hard drives of history.
If contact happens, scientists like me will be excited and remain that way
as we try to analyze the data received and ruminate on their importance for
humanity. But we should recognize that for a very large part of humanity,
the existence of ETI is basically irrelevant—most people’s time and energies
on Earth are not occupied with contemplating alien civilizations but with
managing survival in an environment where resources are scarce and very
unequally distributed. According to the World Bank, roughly 1.25 billion
inhabitants of Earth live in crushing poverty, surviving on less than $1.25 a
day. About 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day, and approximately
80 % of the planet’s population lives on less than $10 per day. Although it’s
difficult to accurately quantify the extent of suffering in our world, the fact
remains that most of Earth’s population lives in conditions ranging from
moderate to extreme poverty.
This might not seem like an important issue for a book about research into
the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, but it’s necessary to realize how eco-
nomic and social factors shape the pursuit of questions related to this topic
or any topic of a scientific, sociological, or philosophical nature. The ability
and desire to explore the cosmos with radio telescopes and to devote a lifetime
searching for an elusive signal from a hoped-for civilization on another world
arises in a socioeconomic and cultural milieu that both generates a distribution
of resources necessary for this type of science to function and contains cultural
values that encourage the belief that this is both interesting and important as
an activity. Keep in mind that there is nothing inherently important or interesting
about contacting an extraterrestrial civilization; it’s interesting only because we live
in a culture that values the idea of contact with alien intelligence.
For the majority of humans, including many in the societies that have
spawned space travel and radio astronomy, the quest for contact with ETI has
6 Science, Culture and the Search for Life on Other Worlds

little relevance to the reality of procuring the basic goods needed just to get
through each day. In other words, the conditions that allowed for the science
of SETI to develop and continue are not shared by the majority of humans
on Earth and are, in fact, a specific product of industrial and postindustrial
societies that provide the economics of scientific discovery and generate a
cultural context in which the questions associated with SETI are valued and
important to many members of the societies in which SETI research is pur-
sued by intellectual elites. Again, I want to emphasize that I’m not arguing
that SETI research is unimportant. I think it’s very important, but it must be
understood within the cultural context in which it arose and the values of that
culture, as well as being situated in a world where discovery of intelligence
elsewhere may not be particularly meaningful for many right here.

1.2 Thinking about Science

I often ask students in my courses about culture and science to define both
terms. Usually, they think science will be easier to define, because science is,
well, scientific. We all know what it is—it’s the search for truth about the way
the world works. Science is about getting facts and proving one’s hypotheses or
theories about the world as being true or false by analyzing data. On the surface,
these seem like good ways to think about science, but oddly enough, science
is considerably more difficult to define than most would assume. Physicist
Richard Feynman wrote about science in his book The Meaning of It All and
argued that the term is used imprecisely; the word “science” can refer to a way
of seeing the world, a body of knowledge about the world, or the practical
products of that knowledge expressed in the form of technology. We often use
all three of these meanings simultaneously or with little thought to the fact
that when we talk about science we may not be very clear on what we mean.
A fairly representative definition of science that expresses how scientists
think about their own work can be found in Isaac Asimov’s comments in an
interview with Bill Moyers during a broadcast in 1988:

Science does not purvey absolute truth; science is a mechanism. It’s a way of trying
to improve your knowledge of nature. It’s a system for testing your thoughts
against the universe and seeing whether they match.

Expressing a similar sentiment, Stuart Firestein in his book Ignorance: How

it Drives Science, tells us that science is always an ongoing process of revision
 1 Science and SETI 7

that moves forward in curious fits and starts of ignorance. I think most
scientists, whether working in natural or social science disciplines, if pressed
to tell someone what they do on a daily basis would agree with this notion
that science is always open to change and constantly reminds us how thor-
oughly we don’t understand our world.
Perhaps what most accurately identifies the scientific approach is an accep-
tance of the idea that our understanding of the universe is always suscep-
tible to revision and that whatever conclusions we draw tend to highlight our
broader ignorance more than they provide answers to anything. Science is not
a profession actually focused on getting answers but is about coming up with
the right questions to ask about our world. In this sense, science is an activ-
ity that emphasizes the value of seeking understanding through the process
of asking well thought-out questions, but it is inherently suspicious of the
answers we get to any questions we might ask. This is applicable to both the
natural and social sciences.
What we can say about science is that scientists of any stripe generally
agree on three main points: (1) good science begins with good questions,
and (2) all answers to questions we ask are contingent; therefore (3) our
descriptions of the world developed through scientific inquiry are inherently
uncertain. When an experimental scientist arrives at a result, we can verify
that result by running the experiment again to see if that result can be repli-
cated. This does not mean that the scientist has arrived at a permanent and
final understanding of that aspect of the world. Rather, it’s true in the sense
that, following our current understanding, the result appears to accurately
represent a particular aspect of nature; should a better way of representing
that aspect of nature arise, then either (A) the initial result will be invalidated
or (B) the scope of that result will be limited. But not all science works in
quite this way. The replication of an experiment or conditions of observation
does not work very well with observational sciences, such as anthropology or
field biology, in which the conditions are constantly changing. Thus, there
is a basic assumption that if another scientist studies the same context at
some point in the future, the initial observations will likely be revised due to
changing conditions. In other words, the “answers” arrived at through obser-
vation are inherently contingent and limited, just like the “answers” arrived
at through experimentation, although the reasons behind that contingent
quality of results are somewhat different.
Scientists may work under the general assumption that a particular theoreti-
cal framework within which they are operating is accurate, but they remain,
or should remain, generally open, under certain conditions related to the
overall paradigmatic structure of what philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn
8 Science, Culture and the Search for Life on Other Worlds

describes as normal science, to revision of a particular theory. In many

cases, this openness results in a narrowing of the scope of applicability of a
theory or in the rethinking of the particular way in which natural or social
processes operate given the emergence of new empirical evidence. For exam-
ple, Darwin’s understanding of evolution worked from the idea that very slow,
gradual processes of change lead to the transformation of entire populations
and, consequently, the emergence of entirely new species. Darwin was not
aware of genetics, so he did not fully understand how this happened—his
contemporary Gregor Mendel figured that out with peas, but Darwin does
not appear to have been aware of Mendel’s work. Darwin’s observations, when
combined with new ideas about the depth of geological time, meant that it
was possible over the course of billions of years for Earth to generate the kind
of biodiversity that we see in nature today. This process is known as phyletic
gradualism and is seen from the traditional Darwinian perspective as being
relatively smooth and occurring at a fairly consistent rate over long periods
of time although that rate can be affected by sudden events that interrupt the
flow, such as the catastrophic impact that apparently brought the dinosaurs
to their demise.
Unfortunately, the fossil record does not clearly support the kind of incre-
mental change in organisms that phyletic gradualism predicts. In fact, we
tend to find various organisms that appear to be related, but for which we
often can’t find much in the way of interim organisms predicted by the theory.
There are a couple of ways to respond to this problem. One is to assume that
the fossil record is incomplete. Although we can see the connections between
different organisms, such as hominids like Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, and
Homo erectus, and can construct a fairly linear progression that shows these
hominids as descendants of early australopithecines and as ancestors of modern
humans, nature simply does not maintain the fossil record well enough for
scientists to identify all of the intervening steps in the transition from one
hominid species to another. In other words, there are gaps in the fossil record
that make it difficult for us to track the precise process of gradual morphologi-
cal change in species that occurred over very long periods of time. But, so the
argument goes, the problem is not with the theory of phyletic gradualism; it’s
with that lack of complete data to fully support the theory which, nonethe-
less, seems sound given the data we have.
An alternate response, developed by paleontologists Niles Eldredge and
Stephen Jay Gould, rests on the idea that the problem isn’t with the fossil
record, but with the theory of phyletic gradualism. Rather than working from
the idea that the fossil record is incomplete, Eldredge and Gould chose to treat
the gaps as real data instead of missing data. This leads one to conclude that
 1 Science and SETI 9

Fig. 1.1 Two colors of the peppered moth

the gaps in the fossil record are not gaps at all, but are accurate representations
of the tempo of evolutionary change, which rather than happening smoothly
occurs in fits and starts. The basic point of the theory developed by Eldredge
and Gould, known as punctuated equilibrium, is that very long periods of
relative stasis in the morphology of species are punctuated by brief periods in
which rapid changes develop and significant speciation occurs. Eldredge and
Gould argued that unlike what Darwinists have assumed the history of evolu-
tion is not a story of gradual unfolding, but one of “homeostatic equilibria”
that occasionally gets disturbed by rapid speciation events.
The nature of this debate is usually misunderstood by religious types who
are either suspicious of or want to challenge the accuracy of evolution as a
way of describing the history of life on Earth. These individuals often make
the mistake of arguing that one of the “flaws” of evolutionary theory is the
“contradiction” between gradualism and punctuated equilibrium. This idea,
like many among fundamentalist Christians (and others), betrays a lack of
understanding of science and of how theorizing works, rather than a “flaw”
within evolutionary theory. Scientists who work in the area of evolution
(and most other scientists as well) have no dispute about the basic Darwinian
insight that biological change occurs through the process of natural selec-
tion—both gradualists and those in favor of punctuated equilibrium agree on
this. The disagreement is about how the process of natural selection operates
10 Science, Culture and the Search for Life on Other Worlds

over time—and scientists agree that the time span is not in thousands, but in
billions of years.
In fact, the evidence for natural selection is overwhelming and can be seen
in many observed processes in nature, such as changes in the distribution of
black and white peppered moths during and following the industrial revolu-
tion in Manchester, England, in which moths colored gray with black speckles
that were the dominant form of the species were replaced by moths that were
largely black (Fig. 1.1). This appears to have been related to pollution in the
form of sulfur dioxide emissions from local coal plants that killed lichen on
trees or landed on trees with gray bark. As the environment changed due to
the pollution, the gray moths increasingly stood out against the darker back-
ground of the tree bark on which they lit, making it much easier for birds to see
and eat them. By contrast, the black moths became camouflaged against the
darker background of the blackened trees, making it more difficult for birds to
see them. As the birds ate the moths that they could now see and missed the
black moths that blended into the sooty bark, the genes of the gray moths were
reduced in the population and those of the black moths expanded, because
the black moths had opportunities to reproduce denied to the gray moths as a
result of being eaten by birds before they could have sex. Following England’s
clean air legislation and subsequent reduction in air pollution, the distribution
of gray peppered moths in the population increased. This is exactly the pro-
cess that Darwin describes in his discussion of natural selection and represents
solid empirical evidence that what Darwin observed and described about how
nature works is accurate. Creationists like Ken Ham are simply wrong about
the age of the Earth and how our planet’s biodiversity came into being through
the process of natural selection that Darwin described.
Nobody from either side of the debate about gradualism and punctuated
equilibrium would argue against the idea that the peppered moth example
shows anything other than the fact that Darwin was right about the basic pro-
cess of evolution as occurring through natural selection. What these two camps
within evolutionary biology disagree on is how to read the fossil record and, as
a result, how to interpret the tempo and flow of evolutionary change. To argue
that this represents a fundamental problem with evolutionary theory is equiva-
lent to arguing that because Newton and Einstein have different ideas about
gravitational forces, the entire notion that gravity exists is flawed. This type of
position not only betrays a lack of understanding of both science and the natu-
ral world, it’s logically untenable because it represents an example of the fallacy
known as the inverse error. Those who take this position in essence argue that
if gradualism (or punctuated equilibrium) is correct (P), then evolutionary
theory is correct (Q); because gradualism (or punctuated equilibrium) may
 1 Science and SETI 11

not be correct (not P), evolutionary theory is not correct (therefore not Q).
Arguments in this form are logically invalid because they fail to give an acceptable
reason to establish the conclusion, even if the initial premise is correct.
Darwin got it right when it came to natural selection. By the late 19th
Century, his ideas had been co-opted in other areas of the academy and used
in the attempt to understand not only biological change, but also social
change. Anthropologist E. B. Tylor, like most of his social science contem-
poraries working in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was
deeply influenced by Darwin’s ideas. Tylor and his contemporaries wrote
about “lower races” and “primitives” when discussing cultures outside of the
North Atlantic, European sphere. In using these terms, they were not only
displaying the racism common at the time, they were trying to represent cul-
tural change in terms of assumptions about evolution drawn from Darwin.
Many scholars saw cultural evolution as having identifiable stages of devel-
opment that did not occur at the same rate in all societies, but that were viewed
as having progressed farther for Europeans and their colonial legacies than
anyone else. Lewis Henry Morgan, a railroad lawyer who laid the tracks for the
development of anthropology in the US with his study of Iroquoian kinship
in the late 19th Century, believed there are three stages of cultural evolution:
(1) savagery, characterized by use of fire, the bow, and pottery, (2) barbarism,
characterized by domestication of animals, agriculture, and metalwork, and (3)
civilization, characterized by use of the alphabet and writing. What’s important
here is that Morgan links social development with technological development
and argues that the measure of the advanced state of a society should be cor-
related with its level of technological development, an idea that he expands to
include stages of cultural and moral development, as well.
I will write more about this later in the book, because it’s relevant to the
manner in which SETI researchers often think about the possible nature of
extraterrestrial intelligence. For now, what matters is that ideas associating
cultural evolution with technological progress, as well as the attempt to rank
societies on the basis of their stage of technological and social development,
were abandoned by anthropologists and other social scientists in the twentieth
century. And the belief that one type of culture—usually those found in mod-
ern state-level societies—is in some way more advanced on an evolutionary
scale than so-called primitive societies has also been abandoned.
The point to be taken away from this discussion is that social scientists
express value judgments within the context of their work as scientists—claims
that one culture is more progressed than another is a product of values related
to social change that were particularly profound in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries although they continue to have force in the early
12 Science, Culture and the Search for Life on Other Worlds

twenty-first century. When it comes to SETI, it’s equally true that claims
contact with ETI will have a profound influence on humanity and change our
understanding of ourselves and our place in the universe are value judgments.
They are not based on empirical evidence because there are no empirical data
on which to develop an analysis and interpretation at this point—we haven’t
made contact. We’ll see what happens if contact actually occurs.
Furthermore, it’s important to recognize that scientists live and work within
the context of institutional and disciplinary ideological matrices that influence
how they think about problems and approach their work. Earlier in this chapter,
I noted that Kuhn’s concept of normal science allows for a certain openness to
alternate ways of thinking that generates opportunities for the development of
new theories and new ways of describing the world. But normal science also can
restrict the ways in which scientists think and the types of questions they ask.
In normal science, scientific inquiry—the daily work of scientists—is largely
aimed at the articulation of observed phenomena and theoretical frameworks
that a given paradigm supplies, rather than the creation of new theories. In
other words, scientific inquiry is conducted within the context of a paradigm
that shapes and in many cases limits the range of questions that are normally
asked. A given paradigm provides a roadmap for thinking that is necessary if
scientists are going to advance knowledge, but it also tends to influence and in
many cases limit the types of questions that are considered normal and accept-
able, thus inhibiting the generation of new and novel theories. The primary
mechanism by which this limiting action occurs is peer review, which can place
a significant damper on the publication of novel and creative ideas that
challenge conventional practice because those who are reviewing new ideas are
often also the ones whose ideas are being challenged.
Over the past 20 years or so, it has been interesting to observe the paradigm
in astronomy shift as astrobiology has emerged as an accepted field of inquiry
and along with that discussions of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence
have moved closer to mainstream science. The Kepler space observatory has
had a lot to do with this because it has shown us that Earth is by no means
alone; there are likely billions of rocky planets with similarities to ours in the
Milky Way alone. Knowledge of the presence of planets orbiting many other
stars has made it much easier for scientists to discuss the potential for life on
other worlds and the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence.
This scientific paradigm has shifted quite a bit from where it was 50 years
ago, when SETI was much more of a fringe activity of questionable scientific
value. Evidence of how much the paradigm has shifted can be found in the
sometimes rather intense debates among SETI scientists and other scientists
about whether or not we should engage in Active SETI (or METI, messaging
 1 Science and SETI 13

to extraterrestrial intelligence). There is an ongoing discussion about whether

or not we should signal our existence to potential ETs or whether we should
remain quiet and simply observe the heavens in hope of finding a signal from
some other civilization. When astronomer and SETI pioneer Frank Drake
sent out a message to the stars from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto
Rico, he just did it. Today, there are ongoing discussions about protocols
for sending messages and consulting with others (scientists, politicians, etc.)
about whether to send and what the content of a message might be.
When we think about science, we also need to keep in mind that scientists
are human beings and, thus, may concern themselves with not only the pursuit
of new knowledge, but also the pursuit of prestige and power. Kuhn makes
the important point that as a result of the emphasis within scientific training
on linking historical individuals with discovery, the act of discovery itself can
become an important personal goal for the scientist. Kuhn argues that for sci-
entists, making a discovery is about as close as we get to having property rights
and as a result it adds a great deal of prestige to one’s career and can lead, of
course, to the types of acrimonious disputes that sometimes arise among sci-
entists over the ownership of a particular discovery or the reasonableness of a
competing theory. That said, expressing value judgments and seeking personal
gain is neither the function nor aim of science, rather it’s a by-product of the
fact that people with similar interests and ideas will both congregate and
also attempt to wield power over each other and manage or manipulate the
behaviors of peers and competitors.

1.3 Understanding Science

So, back to the main question of this chapter—what is science? First, science
usually begins with specific observations of the world and then attempts to
develop theories of underlying principles and processes that explain those
observations. Science involves the systematic study of the world through care-
fully planned observation in order to generate and organize knowledge that
can be tested and can, in some cases, lead to predictions about the universe.
Furthermore, scientists work from the basic conviction that it’s necessary to
verify observations before drawing any conclusions about accuracy. The basic
norms of science are as follows. Science:

1. Involves gathering data—This is understood in a very broad sense that

ranges from the type of quantitative data associated with measurement in
the natural sciences and some social sciences such as sociology to the types
14 Science, Culture and the Search for Life on Other Worlds

of qualitative data associated with cultural anthropology. Data are empirical

in that they are derived from observations of the world that are as unbiased
as possible.
2. Must be objective—The meaning of “objectivity” is open to debate, and
scientists have long understood the notion that we can obtain truly objec-
tive data and perform truly objective analysis to be an illusion. When we
think about an observation as being objective, this does not mean that it
should be seen as corresponding to an objective reality that is distinct from
human mental activity. Instead, empirical data are collected and inter-
preted within space and time, which means that both methods of collec-
tion and approaches to interpretation are shaped by cultural context.
Observations (and empirical data) represent what might best be under-
stood as a complementary picture of the thing being studied, a picture that
operates as a means by which the scientist interprets phenomena. In other
words, empirical data are fundamentally symbolic in that they are repre-
sentations of experience that elicit particular kinds of interpretive responses.
However, scientists generally hold that striving for objectivity is a worth-
while endeavor because it forces us to be explicit about our methods and
measurements, thus allowing others to identify our errors and improve our
understanding of the world.
3. Must be verifiable—That is, the observations made must have the capacity
to be observed by others and confirmed as accurate although there is a
general understanding that in field sciences like anthropology and pri-
matology it may be impossible to actually replicate a particular observa-
tion because the subjects of the study, the researcher, and the context are
constantly changing.

Did you read the word “truth” in that definition? In fact, as I wrote the
above list, as well as the discussion that preceded it, I made it a point to avoid
the word “truth.” My reason for this is that truth is a very complex concept
that, although we often treat it like it represents universal and unwavering
propositions or knowledge, is extremely difficult to pin down in any defini-
tive way without appeal to some type of nonrational concept such as faith,
a god, or natural law. When it comes to science, the fact is that what we are
looking at isn’t a process of finding truth. Stuart Firestein does a nice job of
explaining this in his book Ignorance: How it Drives Science. Science doesn’t
operate along the lines of the proverbial onion in which one strips away layer
after layer to get at the truth lurking deep inside. Rather, it’s like the expand-
ing ripples that emerge on the surface of a pond after one throws in a rock;
 1 Science and SETI 15

the wider they become, the more of what is beyond—the unknown—they

manage to touch. However, the most powerful thing that expansion does is
to uncover more indications of the extent to which we don’t know things.
Science rides on the outer ripple, ever perched on the edge of uncertainty
and ignorance, rather than at the inner sanctum of deep understanding and
truth about the cosmos. There is no question that scientific inquiry gener-
ates new forms of knowledge and new understandings of the world, but each
time we learn something new through science there is an associated portal to
ignorance that opens and reminds us that there is much more to be known.
In short, science does not provide us with the answer; it provides us with
temporary ideas about the way the universe works that usually raise a host of
further questions.
As you move with me throughout the remainder of this book, please keep
this perspective about science in mind. Fundamentally, I see science, like phi-
losophy, theology, and other regions of thought, as a product of culture and
of a human desire—perhaps need—to situate ourselves in our surroundings
and understand our place in the universe. In the next chapter, we will turn
to an exploration of how the capacity for humans, or at least Europeans, to
imagine other worlds with intelligent life emerged with a shift in cosmologies
and worldviews that was congruous with the development of modern science.
Throughout this, I want to emphasize that it’s important to avoid assuming
that ideas about science and the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence that
emerged in the North Atlantic countries are representative of how people
in the past saw the universe or how people in other societies see it in
the present. Many authors write as though the worldview that developed in
Europe is somehow representative of all human civilization, but it clearly is not,
even while that worldview has become increasingly dominant in contemporary
life across continents.
A good example of this can be found in the idea that there is an inherent
conflict between religion and science. Unlike Christianity, Buddhism has
had little of the trouble with Darwinian evolution as descriptive of the work-
ings of our world (and the universe more generally) and the importance and
nature of causal relationships central to physics is quite compatible with the
Buddhist worldview. In societies heavily influenced by Buddhism, like Japan,
one rarely finds the types of silly ideas like those found in Creationism that try
to peg the age of the universe in the thousands, rather than billions of years,
or ignore the empirical evidence that makes it clear natural selection operates
on our planet, and probably many others. What this means, of course, is that
scientists in Japan don’t ever find themselves having to justify their work in
16 Science, Culture and the Search for Life on Other Worlds

the face of attacks by ignorant religious zealots, nor are there issues about
evolutionary theory as a subject to be taught in schools—scientists don’t need
to write op-ed pieces in the newspaper arguing why evolution needs to be
taught to children. Again, science exists in a cultural context that influences
how scientists engage the public, think about their work, and do research.
 2
A Brief History of Imagining Life
on Other Worlds

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every
once in a while, or the light won’t come in.
—Isaac Asimov

When news about the weird behavior of KIC 8462852 broke, the Internet
quickly was buzzing with discussions of alien civilizations and blogs about
what it all might mean. METI International, an organization that supports
Active SETI or intentional messaging to possible alien civilizations, published
a few of blogs, including one where I argued that the meaningfulness of find-
ing another civilization is open to question, given how far away it’s likely to
be. Interest waned a bit when scientists decided that it was probably just a
large swarm of comets, but then in January of 2016 we learned that the comet
hypothesis didn’t work very well, so the idea of aliens again rose to the surface
with article titles like, “Remember that weird star KIC 8462852? Yeah, it’s
probably aliens,” that appeared on hotair.com (an appropriate name if there
ever was one) on 24 January 2016. Of course, no scientist worth anything at
this point would argue that it’s probably aliens, but the media always love the
idea of little green men from Alpha Centauri.
The question of life on other worlds is closely tied to how we think about
the cosmos and how we imagine the relationship between Earth, its human
civilizations, and the universe. When the Internet hums with questions about
the existence of intelligent aliens, the tune being played is about cosmology
or the attempt to explain and understand the origin, structure, evolution, and
ultimate fate of the universe. Cosmology is a very broad field of study pursued
by scientists and theologians although their approach normally differs sig-

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 17

J.W. Traphagan, Science, Culture and the Search for Life on Other Worlds,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41745-5_2
18 Science, Culture and the Search for Life on Other Worlds

nificantly. Physical cosmology—which involves the work of astronomers and

theoretical physicists—emphasizes a systematic examination of the structure
of the universe, its history and future, and tries to identify the natural laws
through which that order and structure is maintained over time. This is where
we find research related to general relativity and ideas such as the Big Bang
Theory. Mythological cosmology raises the same types of questions related to
the history, future, and in some cases even the natural structure of the uni-
verse, but it draws on religious texts, theological and philosophical treatises,
and myths, as well as religious and spiritual experience and sometimes obser-
vation of the natural world, as a means of arriving at answers.
Of course, this is where we find ideas such as the Biblical creation myth
in which the Abrahamic god created the world in 6 days and after creating
humans took a coffee break, the Iroquois myth that the world grew on the
back of a turtle, or the Japanese myth of the brother/sister duo Izanagi and
Izanami who were once believed to have created both the islands of Japan and
many of the deities associated with Shinto. While these cosmologies usually
lack empirical evidence to support their claims, they have an internal logical
structure that can be used to help people make sense of the universe, and
this is something, even if there is little else, that they share with scientifically
oriented cosmologies.
The cosmology to which one adheres has a profound influence on the ways
in which one thinks about not only this world, but the possibility of life exist-
ing on other planets. An approach I often take to engage my class on science,
religion, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is to ask a daily question
using technology that immediately projects the results as a graph on the screen
at the front of the room. Early in the semester I ask the students to respond to
the statement: The idea of extraterrestrial civilizations emerged with the advent of
modern science and technology—true or false? Most students answer that this is
true, particularly if they haven’t done the reading for that week.
Although in some ways this is an accurate response, the actual answer to
this question is more complicated. Democritus, writing 2,400 years ago, was
aware that the Earth is round and argued that it was one of many worlds in the
universe; it’s certainly reasonable to think he may have imagined the possibil-
ity of life on those other worlds. And other Greek and Roman thinkers such as
Epicurus (341–270 B.C.) and Lucretius (ca. 99–55 B.C.) imagined a vast uni-
verse governed by natural laws that seemed likely to generate life, and perhaps
intelligence, in many places. Lucretius writes in On the Nature of the Universe,
that the world is the product of laws that govern the formation and structure
of matter. When the elements of matter are put together in an organized way
according to natural law, similar patterns should emerge in other places.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
malheureuse. Personne n’ignore que l’hétaïre a des nausées, que
l’épouse, souvent, de s’être mariée, se mord les doigts, que la célibataire,
morte-vivante, aspire à l’anéantissement libérateur.
Toutefois, il faut reconnaître, que, si la femme est malheureuse,
l’homme ne trouve guère, lui non plus, le bonheur sur la terre où, chacun
étant comme muré, il est impossible à l’être humain de satisfaire le plus
impérieux de ses instincts, celui de la sociabilité.
Avant que Guy de Maupassant n’ait jeté ce cri désespéré: «L’être
moral de chacun de nous, reste éternellement seul par la vie!» Flaubert
avait constaté qu’on ne se rencontre qu’en se heurtant et que chacun
portant dans ses mains ses entrailles déchirées «accuse l’autre qui
ramasse les siennes!»
La souffrance morale qui nous enveloppe tous, résulte surtout de
malentendus. Elle pourrait être supprimée. Mais, quand les Français, qui
s’efforcent en tant de choses vaines, s’occuperont-ils de substituer dans
les relations humaines la franchise à l’hypocrisie, la liberté à la
compression, en changeant avec une législation anti-naturelle, des
mœurs qui oppriment les faibles, et empêchent les femmes instigatrices
de tout bien-être, d’édifier le bonheur dans la société?
La civilisation, ce grattage de la rugosité barbare qui a pour résultat la
mise à vif de l’épiderme moral, rend les rapports humains déjà difficiles.
Plus les êtres sont délicats et sensibles, plus ils ont besoin de
s’adapter au milieu social ne les meurtrissant pas, et de prévenir les
heurts individuels.
Or, après avoir élevé l’homme et la femme très différemment et armé
légalement, celui-ci contre celle-là, on les unit ou plutôt on les projette l’un
contre l’autre. Le choc est violent, la lutte est courte. D’un tour de main
l’homme terrasse la femme et lui dit: «Maintenant, obéis!»
Les individus les plus ignares, en venant de se marier, sont «de
mauvaises bêtes dressées à terroriser les autres»; dressées non par
l’éducation, par la loi qui leur dit: «Tu es tout, la femme n’est rien. Elle a le
devoir de t’obéir comme à un maître, tu as le droit de la tuer comme un
chien!»
 Comment veut-on, que le mari ainsi stylé ait de bons procédés envers
sa compagne! Ne serait-ce pas bien plus naturel que la loi dise à
l’homme: «Ton épouse et toi, vous êtes devant moi, égaux. Votre devoir
est de vous aimer, mutuellement, beaucoup et de vous rendre heureux le
plus possible».
Le mariage est un coupe-gorge où très légalement l’homme dépouille
sa femme de son argent et de sa part de bonheur.
Pour que la loi soit équitable et impartiale pour toute l’espèce humaine,
il faut qu’elle soit faite par toute l’espèce humaine, par la femme comme
par l’homme; alors, au lieu d’être impitoyable elle aura la douceur des
lisières dont les mères se servent pour prévenir les faux pas des enfants.
 XXXII
Le vote des femmes à l’étranger

Amérique du Nord (105.000.000 habitants, 44.639.189 femmes).

Depuis 1869, les femmes jouissent de leurs droits politiques dans
l’Etat de Wyoming. «Relativement au suffrage féminin, dit un gouverneur
de cet Etat, une once d’expérience vaut une tonne de conjectures. Or
l’application par notre constitution de notre système de suffrage égal
accordé aux deux sexes est un succès incontestable. Sous l’empire de
cette disposition, nous avons de meilleures lois, de meilleurs magistrats,
de meilleures institutions et le niveau de notre condition sociale est plus
élevé que partout ailleurs.
«Aucun des maux que l’on nous annonçait, tels que la perte de la
délicatesse féminine et le trouble de nos relations domestiques ne s’est
montré».
Dans l’Utah les femmes ont leurs droits politiques. Comme elles les
ont dans le Colorado depuis 1893. Dans l’Idaho depuis 1911. Le
gouverneur de l’Idaho écrit: «Politiquement, l’effet du suffrage des femmes
a été considérable, relevant et profitable. L’administration des affaires
gouvernementales a été confiée à des mains plus honnêtes et les affaires
de la République en ont bénéficié».
Dans l’Etat de Washington en 1911. Arizona, Kansas, New-York,
Michigan, Orégon 1911-1912. La Californie 1912. L’Illinois, le Territoire de
l’Alaska 1913, les femmes ont leurs droits politiques.
En 1916, l’Etat de Montana a élu une femme comme députée au
Congrès. C’est la première femme siégeant au Parlement.
12 janvier 1918, adoption du nouvel article de la Constitution qui
accorde le droit de vote aux femmes.
1920. Cet article est adopté par les Etats dont la majorité des trois
quarts était nécessaire pour rendre la mesure applicable à tout le pays.
Canada
 En 1916, l’Etat de Manitoba donna le suffrage universel et l’éligibilité
aux femmes par un vote unanime de son Parlement de province, ce qui
leur donna des droits également dans le Parlement de tout le Canada, à
Montréal.
En 1919, la Chambre des communes d’Ottawa a accordé aux femmes
le droit de voter et de siéger au Parlement.
Amérique du Sud
République de l’Equateur, 1.272.000 habitants. Depuis 1861, les
femmes jouissent de leurs droits politiques.
République de Costa-Rica, 400.000 habitants. Les femmes jouissent
de leurs droits civils.
Asie
Inde (315.156.000 habitants, 119.393.851 femmes).

Diverses provinces des Indes ont accordé le droit de suffrage politique

aux Femmes.
Canton (Chine) (900.000 habitants).
Dans la province de Canton, les Femmes ont le droit de suffrage
politique.
Europe
Angleterre (41.074.090 habitants).

Comme en France avant 1789, en Angleterre avant 1832, des

catégories de femmes avaient le droit de vote.
Le terme usité dans la législation anglaise désignait comme devant
voter «les personnes».
Le statut de 1832 fit ajouter au mot «personnes» l’adjectif mâles.
L’agitation en faveur du libre échange favorisa le mouvement féministe
en Angleterre et fit comprendre aux femmes, combien la politique avait de
répercussion dans leur vie.
Stuart Mill, premier défenseur du vote des femmes en Angleterre,
comprit l’immense portée du mal que se fait la société en frappant les
femmes d’exclusion politique.
 En 1865, dans sa profession de foi, Stuart Mill réclama pour les
femmes le droit d’être représentées au Parlement. Elu représentant de
Westminster à la Chambre des Communes, il présenta en 1865 la
première pétition des femmes couverte de 1499 signatures. En 1868,
Stuart Mill ne fut pas réélu.
La chambre des communes avait remplacé «personnes mâles» par
«Man» «homme» pris dans le sens «d’individu».
5.347 femmes se firent inscrire sur les listes électorales de
Manchester. Leur cause fut soutenue par D. Pankhurst. Les juges leur
donnèrent tort.
Joseph Bright fit obtenir par un projet de loi le suffrage municipal aux
femmes en 1869.
Les femmes votaient encore dans 78 agglomérations, non érigées en
municipe, où chaque contribuable vote.
En 1870, Joseph Bright présenta un bill pour l’affranchissement
politique des femmes. En 1871-1872-1873 Jacob Bright présenta son bill
pour le suffrage parlementaire des femmes, qui fut repoussé par des
majorités variant de 67 à 79 voix.
En 1876-1877-1879, M. Forsyth fit à la chambre des communes, des
propositions en faveur du vote des femmes, sans résultats.
C’est avec une ardeur infatigable que tous les ans fut défendue au
Parlement la cause des femmes.
En 1888, les femmes Anglaises obtinrent l’électorat aux Conseils de
Comté (analogues à nos Conseils généraux).
En 1907, les femmes devinrent éligibles aux County Councils, comme
conseillères, alderman, présidentes ou maires.
Ces efforts de propagande au Parlement ont formé des générations de
féministes anglaises qui ont réussi à placer la question du vote
parlementaire, au premier plan des préoccupations nationales.
Un groupe, le Women Social and Political Union a recouru à l’action
directe. Sous le nom de suffragettes, ses membres ont fait entrer le conflit
dans une période aiguë.
 Les socialistes anglais sont divisés sur la question du suffrage des
femmes. Keir Hardie est le leader des suffragettes.
En février 1908, proposition de M. Stanger à la chambre des
communes, en faveur du vote des femmes. Il combat éloquemment les
objections faites.
En 1914, les obligations de la Grande guerre ayant fait voter la
Conscription, obligea les femmes à remplacer les hommes dans leurs
divers métiers ou fonctions: «Leur effort, dit le premier ministre Lloyd
Georges, a permis de libérer plus d’hommes pour renforcer nos armées
que celles-ci n’en comportaient au début de la guerre.»
Le 14 novembre 1918, la chambre des lords a adopté, sans
discussion, le projet de loi permettant aux femmes contribuables à partir
de l’âge de 30 ans, de siéger à la Chambre des Communes.
La Chambre des Communes avait voté sans discussion ce projet qui
accordait le droit de vote à six millions de femmes, parce que les femmes
avaient prouvé par leur conduite pendant la guerre qu’elles étaient dignes
de voter et de légiférer.
Finlande (3.329.146 habitants).
En Finlande depuis 1906 les femmes jouissent de leurs droits
politiques.
En 1907, 19 finlandaises ont été élues députées à la Diète. En 1908,
25 finlandaises furent élues à la Diète. En 1909, 21 femmes furent élues à
la Diète qui compte 200 députés.
En Finlande, depuis que les femmes sont membres du Parlement, la
police des mœurs a été supprimée. La situation des ouvrières a été
améliorée et relevée. Toutes les carrières sont ouvertes aux femmes, et
quand elles perpétuent l’espèce, des garanties leur sont données par
l’assurance d’accouchement et l’assurance en cas de maladie.
Les femmes firent diminuer l’alcoolisme. L’ivrognerie était en Finlande
un vice national. Les femmes, par leur influence dans les assemblées
locales firent dès 1896 prohiber la vente de l’alcool dans les campagnes
et dans les villes et restreindre cette vente aux seuls établissements qui
débitent des aliments chauds.
 Quand les femmes entrèrent à la Diète, elles firent voter, que la
fabrication et la vente de l’alcool, autorisée seulement dans un but
médical, industriel ou scientifique, constituerait un monopole pour l’Etat et
serait rigoureusement interdit aux particuliers pour la consommation
publique.
Les protestations des producteurs n’ont pas empêché d’appliquer ce
remède énergique qui a fait disparaître à peu près l’alcoolisme.
Danemark (3.289.195 habitants).
En 1908, les droits municipaux ont été accordés aux femmes. En
1915, elles ont obtenu les droits politiques pour les femmes âgées de plus
de 25 ans.
Tchéco-Slovaquie (13.914.336 habitants).
Les femmes ont le droit de vote et d’éligibilité à la Diète depuis 1920.
Islande (85.183 habitants, 44.078 femmes).
Les femmes ont les droits politiques.
Irlande (4.390.219 habitants, 2.198.171 femmes).
La Constitution Républicaine a accordé le droit de vote politique aux
femmes et l’éligibilité.
Ile de Man (52.000 habitants, 28.000 femmes).
Petite île Anglaise de la mer d’Irlande. Les femmes jouissent de leurs
droits politiques depuis 1881. La grandeur de l’île est de 2.781.000
kilomètres carrés.
France (41.475.523 habitants).
En 1900, les femmes peuvent ester en justice et servir de témoins.
En 1907, les femmes ont obtenu de rester maîtresses de leur salaire
par la loi du 13 juillet 1907. Les femmes ayant les conditions requises sont
électrices aux Conseils des prud’hommes.
En 1908, elles sont éligibles à ce même Conseil.
 1917, le 22 février, les femmes sont admises aux fonctions de tutrices,
avec l’autorisation de leur mari, si elles sont mariées. Le mari sera co-
tuteur de sa femme et responsable solidairement avec elle.
La femme peut être membre d’un Conseil de famille. La femme mariée
ne pourra siéger dans le même Conseil que son mari.
République de Tavolera

Côté Nord-Ouest de la Sardaigne à l’entrée du golfe de Terranova,

baignée par la mer Tyrrhénienne, peuplée de quelques centaines
d’habitants. Les femmes jouissent du droit électoral comme les hommes.
Russie (182.000.000 habitants).
La République des Soviets proclamée en 1916 accorde le droit de vote
et d’éligibilité aux Russes des deux sexes ayant atteint l’âge de vingt ans.
Allemagne (55.000.000 habitants).
Les Allemands, après leur défaite écrasante de 1918 et la fuite de
Guillaume II en Hollande, élurent un Directoire pour préparer l’élection
d’une Assemblée Nationale qui serait chargée de faire la Constitution. La
loi électorale donne les droits politiques à tous les Allemands des deux
sexes au-dessus de vingt ans. L’éligibilité au-dessus de 25 ans.
Autriche (6.067.430 habitants).
En 1919, un décret confère le droit de vote à tous les citoyens
hommes et femmes ayant vingt-quatre ans, ainsi que l’éligibilité.
Hongrie (15.541.000 habitants).
31 août 1919. Décret conférant le droit de vote à tous les hommes et
femmes ayant 24 ans et l’éligibilité.
Jusqu’à cette date les femmes de la caste des grands propriétaires
avaient le droit de vote en Autriche-Hongrie, mais elles ne pouvaient
l’exercer que par procuration.
Hollande (6.279.000 habitants).
Novembre 1916. La Chambre des députés adopte un article décrétant
l’éligibilité des femmes aux Etats-généraux. Avril 1921. Le vote obligatoire
municipal.
 Luxembourg (263.800 habitants, 133.310 femmes).
Depuis 1919, les hommes et les femmes ont les droits politiques
lorsqu’ils sont âgés d’au moins 21 ans.
Belgique (7.555.596 habitants, 3.835.837 femmes).
1919. Le droit de vote est accordé aux femmes de soldats tués au
front ou de civils victimes de l’ennemi, ou à leur défaut, aux mères, pour
l’élection de la Constituante chargée de réviser la Constitution. Le suffrage
direct a été également accordé aux femmes condamnées ou
emprisonnées par les Allemands pour faits patriotiques.
1920. Le droit de vote communal est accordé aux femmes. Il est
obligatoire.
1921 (2 août). Les femmes peuvent exercer les fonctions de
Bourgmestre, d’échevin, de receveur ou de secrétaire communal.
Territoire de Wilna (732.000 habitants).
1922 (8 janvier). Les habitants, sans distinction de sexe, qui habitent le
pays depuis trois ans, ont reçu les droits politiques.
Roumanie (17.393.149 habitants, 8.631.057 femmes).
1921 (2 juillet). Une loi établit le suffrage obligatoire des femmes aux
élections municipales.
Ukraine (46.000.000 habitants).
Les Femmes ont les droits politiques.
Norvège (2.240.000 habitants, 1.236.109 femmes).
Les Norvégiennes ont depuis 1909 le droit de vote et l’éligibilité
parlementaire, à base censitaire.
Le 12 juin 1913, le Storting a voté un projet de loi, accordant aux
femmes le droit de vote pour les élections générales aux mêmes
conditions qu’aux hommes.
En 1917, les femmes purent être nommées ministres.
Suède (5.222.000 habitants, 2.964.645 femmes).
 En 1916. Le suffrage parlementaire est accordé aux femmes dans les
mêmes conditions qu’aux hommes.
Nation Polonaise (30.000.000 habitants).
1921. Les femmes ont le vote et l’éligibilité dans la Constitution
nouvelle, à partir de 21 ans, au Sénat à 30 ans.
Lithuanie (4.651.000 habitants).
1918. Les femmes ont le droit de vote et l’éligibilité dans la Constitution
nouvelle, à partir de 24 ans.
Esthonie (1.750.000 habitants).
Les femmes, dans la nouvelle Constitution ont le droit de vote, à partir
de 24 ans et l’éligibilité.
Lettonie (2.500.000 habitants).
Les femmes ont les Droits politiques.

Océanie
Nouvelle-Zélande (1.099.449 habitants, 547.974 femmes).
Les femmes ont les droits politiques depuis 1895.
Le vote des femmes a eu pour effet d’augmenter l’activité politique et
d’empêcher les hommes de s’abstenir d’exercer leurs droits électoraux.
Australie (4.400.000 habitants, 2.147.790 femmes).
Depuis 1899 les femmes jouissent de leurs droits politiques.
En Australie les droits politiques exercés par les femmes ont eu une
influence considérable sur la moralité des élus. Les partis ont dû
abandonner les candidats de moralité insuffisante, pour les électrices.
Partout le bien individuel et public profite de la coopération politique de
l’homme et de la femme.
Les hommes et les femmes étant solidaires doivent en collaboration
diriger la société.
 Dans les pays où les femmes votent, en effet, de quoi se plaint-on?
Est-ce des opinions contradictoires existant entre électeurs et électrices?
Non!
En même temps que l’on se loue de la moralisation politique due à
l’élément féminin, on se plaint de la trop grande communion d’idées entre
conjoints. On dit que les deux époux en votant de même ne font que se
doubler, ne font qu’augmenter l’autorité de leur parti.
Les femmes votent comme leurs maris, ou les maris comme leurs
femmes. La communauté des intérêts réalise l’entente politique. Or,
qu’est-ce qui serait actuellement plus désirable en France que l’entente
politique?
Il est d’ailleurs un nombre considérable de femmes, les célibataires et
les veuves, que l’on ne peut redouter de voir briguer la candidature en
même temps que leur mari, attendu qu’elles n’en ont point.
 NOTES

[1] Le mot Féministe—adhérent du Féminisme, qui est une

doctrine qui fait la femme l’égale de l’homme et lui accorde les
mêmes droits—est ici par anticipation, car il ne fut employé par
Hubertine Auclert qu’en 1882 dans une lettre au préfet de la Seine.
Voir le Vote des femmes, page 64.
[2] Le Droit politique des femmes, 1 brochure.
[3]Egalité sociale et politique de la femme et de l’homme, 1
brochure.
[4]La loi de la recherche de la paternité de 1912, exige une
preuve écrite.
[5]La loi de 1907 (13 juillet) qui attribue à la femme la possession
de son salaire, y met la restriction, qu’en cas d’abus par la femme des
pouvoirs qui lui sont conférés par l’article 1 dans l’intérêt du ménage,
le mari pourra en faire prononcer le retrait, soit en tout, soit en partie.
[6] Ecrit en 1880. Depuis 1893 plusieurs Etats ont donné aux
femmes le droit de vote politique. En 1920, l’article de la Constitution
qui accorde le droit de vote aux femmes de l’Amérique a été voté.
[7] Volume Lamarre, 4, rue Antoine Dubois.
[8]Mesdames Elisabeth Renaud dans l’Isère, Marguerite Durand
dans le 9e arrondissement, Madeleine Pelletier le 8e, de Maguerie le
6e, Caroline Kauffmann Arria Ly à Toulouse.
Par la loi de 1917, la femme peut être tutrice et faire partie des
[9]
conseils de famille.
[10]Depuis 1901, la femme peut témoigner en justice et servir de
témoin.
[11] Mort en janvier 1914.
 [12]Ecrit avant 1914. En 1919, 7 octobre. La Chambre a voté une
proposition de loi instaurant le vote et l’éligibilité des Femmes par 340
voix contre 95.
[13] Se rappeler que ce livre a été écrit avant la grande guerre.
[14] Écrit avant 1914.
[15] Les femmes peuvent ester en justice par la loi de 1900.
[16] Ecrit avant la grande guerre.
[17]La loi nouvelle portera que: «La femme française qui épouse
un étranger conserve sa nationalité, à moins qu’elle ne déclare
expressément dans l’acte de mariage, vouloir acquérir la nationalité
de son mari.»
[18] En 1879.
[19] En 1904.
1919. Loi des 8 heures de travail par jour. 2 août 1919 dans la
[20]
Marine marchande. 24 juin 1919. Loi réduisant les 8 heures pour les
Mineurs.
[21]Projet de loi tendant à modifier l’article 30 de la loi du 27 juin
1914, pour l’Admission des femmes aux emplois de sous-inspectrices
départementales de l’Assistance publique.
[22] En 1920, Jules Guesde a déposé à la Chambre une loi
tendant à faire proclamer l’égalité civile et politique entre tous les
français.
[23] Leur chef a depuis reconnu son erreur et a fait une campagne
patriotique ardente; ses adeptes, éclairés eux aussi, sont morts en
héros sur nos champs de bataille.
 TABLE DES MATIERES

Pages.
Au lecteur. I
Hubertine Auclert. 1
I.—La Réforme électorale. 93
II.—Le vote et l’éligibilité pour les femmes. 105
III.—Enquête sur la représentation des femmes
au Parlement. 123
IV.—Pétition réclamant la représentation intégrale
de la nation. 145
V.—Les réformateurs de la loi électorale. Premier
contact avec la Commission de la réforme
électorale. 158
VI.— L’annulement politique des femmes est un
obstacle au progrès. 180
VII.—La cherté de la vie est due à l’exclusion des
femmes de l’administration des affaires
publiques. 204
VIII.—Les intérêts de la France mis en péril par les
hommes. 213
IX.— La France menacée par ses multiples
cabarets. 218
X.—Psychologie féminine. 226
XI.— Le rôle des femmes et leur devoir dans la
société. 232
XII.—Les femmes sont moins en France que les
roulures de Bagne. 242
XIII.—La femme en France est moins que
l’étranger. 248
XIV.—Sentiments et systèmes. L’âge et le sexe. 261
 XV.—La besogne ménagère. Travail domestique 272
rétribué.
XVI.—Les Mères doivent voter. 296
XVII. La fonction maternelle rétribuée.
— 306
XVIII. L’enfant doit-il porter le nom de la mère?
— Matriarcat. 311
XIX.—Les Mères et la dépopulation. 317
XX.—La femme en état de légitime défense. 323
XXI.—Pour les primitifs l’enfant est une valeur.
Pour les civilisés l’enfant est une charge. 327
XXII. Les mères plus mal traitées que les animaux
— reproducteurs. 330
XXIII. La société n’assure pas l’existence de sa
— perpétuatrice. 333
XXIV. Les risques de la maternité.
— 337
XXV. L’enfant source de profits pour l’homme.
— 342
XXVI. L’abandon de l’enfant.
— 346
XXVII. Rétablissons l’armoire tournante. Le tour
— discret. 352
XXVIII. Le Socialisme n’aurait pas pour résultat
— l’affranchissement de la femme. 359
XXIX. La République personnifiée par la femme.
— 365
XXX. La Patrie et les Femmes.
— 368
XXXI. Le désarmement des hommes amènera le
— désarmement des peuples. 373
XXXII. Le vote des Femmes à l’étranger.
— 387
 Au lecteur

Cette version numérisée reproduit dans son intégralité la

version originale. Les erreurs manifestes de typographie ont été
corrigées.
La couverture est illustrée par une peinture de Jean Béraud.
Elle appartient au domaine public.

Saint-Amand (Cher).—Imprimerie Bussière.

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LES FEMMES AU
GOUVERNAIL ***

Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these
works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the
United States without permission and without paying copyright
royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of
this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™
electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept
and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may
not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following the terms
of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use of the
Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for copies
of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very easy. You
may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of
derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—
you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.

START: FULL LICENSE

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE