Donna Haraway Analysis of Haraway Primate Visions essays

Donna Haraway Analysis of Haraway Primate Visions essays Haraway deconstructs the institution of the museum and reveals the fissures in the ideology of male discourse and the re-presentation of the world from a certain point of view and ideological bias. The museum acts as a form of legitimization and as a reality construct that represents the dominant culture. Through a wide range of interacting images and ideas, Haraway explores the museum as reality creating machine that reflects patriarchal In the analysis of Akeley's life, Haraway presents"polyphony of stories that do not harmonize". (35) The concept of taxidermy serves as a crucial fulcrum in this analysis; "Taxidermy was made into the servant of the real' artificial children, better than life, were born from dead The above statement epitomizes the tone and deconstructive nature of her central theme. This theme is the creation or re-presentation of the real within the ideological format and parameters of those who pretend to create. This is not only a deconstruction of the issues and ambiguities of a taxidermist's life but also a dissection of Western cultural norms and values. Throughout the emphasis is on the fact that nature, science and the museum are technological constructions that are created through ideology and social praxis'. The dioramas are meaning-machines' in that they are productions or creations that reflect a certain ideological viewpoint and structure; and serve to legitimize and perpetuate that world- Haraway states that Akeley's life, ambition and vocation was the production' of a craft for eliciting unambiguous experience of organic perfection'. (39) The words production' and unambiguous' provides the clues to the essence of her understanding of the technology of ideology that manufactures or produces a certainty and a version of reality. ...