Culture, Mind, and Society Series Editor Yehuda C. Goodman, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel The Society for Psychological Anthropology—a section of the Amer- ican Anthropology Association—and Palgrave Macmillan are dedicated to publishing innovative research that illuminates the workings of the human mind within the social, cultural, and political contexts that shape thought, emotion, and experience. As anthropologists seek to bridge gaps between ideation and emotion or agency and structure and as psychologists, psychi- atrists, and medical anthropologists search for ways to engage with cultural meaning and difference, this interdisciplinary terrain is more active than ever. Editorial Board Eileen Anderson-Fye, Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University Jennifer Cole, Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago Linda Garro, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles Daniel T. Linger, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz Rebecca Lester, Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis Tanya Luhrmann, Department of Anthropology, Stanford University Catherine Lutz, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Peggy Miller, Departments of Psychology and Speech Communication, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Robert Paul, Department of Anthropology, Emory University Antonius C. G. M. Robben, Department of Anthropology, Utrecht Univer- sity, Netherlands Bradd Shore, Department of Anthropology, Emory University Jason Throop, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles Carol Worthman, Department of Anthropology, Emory University More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14947 Mads Solberg A Cognitive Ethnography of Knowledge and Material Culture Cognition, Experiment, and the Science of Salmon Lice Mads Solberg Department of Health Sciences Norwegian University of Science and Technology Aalesund, Norway Culture, Mind, and Society ISBN 978-3-030-72510-5 ISBN 978-3-030-72511-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72511-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed 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, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: LeoPatrizi, Getty Images This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Series Editor’s Foreword Mads Solberg’s ethnography invites readers to a journey into the world of the science of salmon and their parasites. At the same time it explores the cultural production and transfer of knowledge as carried out through the materiality of scientific work. Such work means that human knowledge is not merely a representation of nature but intimately part of it. The ethnography examines in particular how materials and interactions in the lab produce knowledge; how scientific practices combine the discursive, material and the social, and how implicit cognitive processes are sorted out through this work. The book is a contribution to the anthropology of knowledge— following on the ground the work of experimental biologists with an emphasis on the cognitive processes embedded in their work. Solberg is interested in developing the concept of “distributed cognition” and in following how “materiality” plays out in the lab. These concepts allow for following scientists’ work not just as individuals and not just by analyzing their sociality as such. The book is about understanding the v vi Series Editor’s Foreword broader experimental system of a lab—the physical, social, and concep- tual spaces in which scientists work. Solberg then asks how such a system is pragmatically shaped, and how cognitions are formed in such spaces. Solberg explores these analytical questions in the concrete world of Norwegian scientists (at the Sea Lice Research Centre) who interrogate salmon lice, and situates this site within the larger world of aquaculture and its history. The ethnography delves into new technologies of RNA- interference and how they are used in “reverse vaccinology”. Solberg demonstrates how cognition is pragmatically worked out by following collective and interspecies collaborations in the lab. He follows “chore- ographies” of enacted understanding in which scientists and technicians transform isolated, meaningless materials into meaningful wholes. Understanding how scientists repress gene expression in the lice genome means following the epistemological work in which researchers, materials (like lice tissues or microscopes), techniques, perceptions and various representations thereof (including imaging, semiotics, and note taking) are all put together and interact. This collaborative work forms what Solberg calls “ecological assemblies.” Analyzing them allows for understanding how “thinking through things” is worked out. Finally, Solberg draws attention to the ways distributed cognitive ecological systems are laden with values, emotions and political interests, which, Solberg suggests, should invite further inquiry and reflection. Jerusalem, Israel Yehuda C. Goodman Acknowledgments This book should not have come to fruition without generous assistance from the clever people at the Sea Lice Research Centre. Director Frank Nilsen and Ingunn Wergeland made this study possible, after I showed up at their door in May 2012, asking whether they would mind an anthropologist spending a few years alongside their crew, observing their work. With kindness they provided a workspace, access to the lab, and let me tag along on events big and small. No small favor to accord a stranger, and more than I could have hoped for. Your hospitality is deeply appreciated, and I remain impressed by the community you have built. A big thanks to Lars Hamre and Per-Gunnar Espedal for showing me the ropes in the wet lab, teaching me about the secrets of salmon lice, and for many laughs. Rune Male kindly let me attend his lectures on the structure and function of genes, and offered enlightening conversa- tions about the past, present, and future of molecular biology. The hard- working Ph.D.-students and postdocs at the Centre kindly answered my childlike questions about their work over the years, while they really had more important things to do. I owe them much. Christiane Eichner, Sussie Dalvin, and Sindre Grotmol gave generously from their time to vii viii Acknowledgments satisfy my curiosity about their work. Collaborating with Sussie on a conference paper on how salmon lice were framed in online resources for SeaLice 2014 in Portland (Maine), offered a great learning oppor- tunity. Heidi Kongshaug and Wenche Telle explained the minutiae of work in the DNA lab to a fledging observer. Michael Dondrup and Inge Jonassen helped me understand basic principles about the digitization of life, and the bioinformatics of salmon lice. I would also like to thank other members of the community who kindly answered my questions, big and small. Various members of the SLRC have offered close readings of various parts of the manuscript and given valuable feedback. For this I am eternally grateful. Grants from the Meltzer Foundation, the Mobility Fund at the University of Bergen’s Faculty of Social Sciences, and the Mobility Fund for the Norwegian Research School in Anthropology, made it possible to spend the winter quarter 2014 at the Department of Cognitive Science, University of California—San Diego. Edwin Hutchins kindly sponsored my stay and thought me how to better think about cognitive anthro- pology. Hutchins and co-director Jim Hollan offered me a desk in the DCOG-HCI lab, and let me attend their research seminars, as well as many excellent lectures. My gratitude goes to faculty and graduate students affiliated with the lab for teaching me about their work, crit- ically shaping this book in its infancy. Morana Alaˇc deeply influenced my thoughts about how to respecify cognitive studies of science from an interactional perspective, offering perceptive and invaluable comments on later versions of this text. Thanks to Beverly Walton for getting critical paperwork in order. I am grateful to John McNeil, who convinced me about the need to situate the science