Knowing, Unknowing, and Reknowing

Most technologies are knowledge-intensive, and contemporary knowledge production is often technology-intensive. Hence, knowledge practices are a central theme for a handbook for the anthropology of technology. Knowledge about knowing has mostly been considered a branch of philosophy or alternatively of theology. In this section we argue that the study of knowledge practices is part of both the foundation of the anthropological discipline and its future as we attend to technology-mediated forms of knowing, unknowing, and re-knowing. The section highlights the variations and multiplicities of knowing. It shows that studying knowledge and forms of knowing implies exploring forms of unknowing and ignorance. The seven contributions to this section present research on processes through which knowledge is made, what becomes silenced in the process, and how anthropology often holds a special role in bringing such lost insights or alternative forms of knowing back into the light. Each of the chapters presents a unique take on human engagement with knowledge and technologies of knowing, thereby continuing a long tradition of studying the production of knowledge as socially embedded and materially ingrained.