UC Irvine

Debate over the relationship(s) between science, religion, magic, and pseudo-science festers in many contexts. These terms and the world-ordering practices they represent are locked in a struggle that is persistent, highly charged, non-innocent, and almost timeless. Historically, contextually specific definitions of these terms have been used to persecute individuals, justify colonization, order social relations, and monopolize funding. Intellectually the resolution of their relationship lies at the foundation of the \Vestern pursuit of knowledge. While certain historical periods and contexts have been marked by an apparent resolution of these terms and their relationships, current work in anthropology and history of science has unsettled some contemporary understandings of these terms within the academic context. Bruno Latour has suggested that science is merely a smoke screen hiding the proliferation of nature-culture hybrids so their production may continue without limit. According to this definition, science merely differs from other world ordering practices in style and by degree. Others, while recognizing the technological achievements of scientific thought, some scholars have questioned application of science to the social sphere.