This paper explores the intersection of geology, colonialism, and Islamic intellectual traditions in 19th-century South Asia. British geological surveys, aimed at mapping resources and extracting minerals, functioned as instruments of imperial control, reshaping both the perception and utilization of landscapes. These colonial efforts often conflicted with local knowledge systems, particularly those embedded in Islamic cosmology and cultural practices. By the 19th century, Muslim communities were deeply integrated into the region's cultural and social fabric, influencing its intellectual and spiritual traditions. This long-standing engagement allowed Muslims to develop unique interpretations of natural phenomena. A key example is the Khewra Salt Mine in Punjab, which held not only economic value but also spiritual and cultural significance for local communities, even as it became a vital resource for the colonial administration. This paper will analyze these intersections, illustrating how local interactions with geological phenomena reflected broader struggles over power, identity, and knowledge under colonial rule.

This triple authored paper will describe the ongoing work by a Paumotu cultural leader, a coral-reef researcher, and a historian of science to document past and present knowledge of coral reefs in the Tuamotu islands of French Polynesia/Mā'ohi Nui. Thanks to a recent grant from the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, we began a project in 2024 to (i) conduct oral history interviews with Paumotu elders about ideas and terminology regarding island origins and reef formation; (ii) compare the contents of these interviews with older materials including a remarkable collection of early twentieth-century Paumotu manuscripts preserved at the archives of the Peabody Essex Museum; and (iii) create educational materials in Paumotu (the language of the Tuamotu islands) for use in schools. We have already done extensive archival research, and we expect by the time of the ICHST meeting to have completed our first collection of oral history interviews.

Hinano Teavai-Murphy
Frank Murphy

In 2024 there are 10 UNESCO Global Geoparks and 37 National Geoparks in Japan. Geopark people make research on geo-story in geopark area. They discovered and collected more geo-stories than geologists did. The geo-stories in the Geoparks in Japan will be published as one book in 2025.

On the other hand, Ainu, Ryukyu, and Yamato races existed in Japan since more than 6,000 years before Recent. There are controversies which is the most indigenous race. Japan closed doors to the western countries. Modern geological thinking of westerners flew into Japan after 1854. Before the western geological thinking flew into Japan, the three races are same situation. Here I will introduce Japanese geological thinking without distinction of three races.
The geo-stories are as follows;
The earthquake was caused by cat fishes.
The pyroclastic flows of volcanoes were caused by snakes with eight heads.
The fossil elephant tooth is the head bone of imaginary animal of dragon.
The fossil shark tooth is the nails of imaginary figure of Tengu.
The imaginary giant threw Mt Fuji (the highest mountain of Japan) and the root site is the largest lake of the Biwako, and so on.

Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), known as his Japanese name Yakumo Koizumi, had a keen interest in Buddhism in Japan. His understanding of it can connect to the contemporary scientific discourse during his lifetime. However, his sympathetic attitudes toward Buddhism in Japan originate from his profound skepticism about the concept of the self circulating widely in the Western world since Rene Descartes. For him, the self is not the Soul but the temporal aggregation of innumerable past lives and the Universal existence beyond geological and cosmological ideas. Through his experience among Japanese people, Hearn came to sharpen this vision.
Hearn’s attempt to understand Buddhism in Japan partially conformed to the ideas of the Western worldview by referring to the science on the one hand; however, on the other hand, his attempt made the fundamental idea of the modern science relativize and implode. Finally, I would like to suggest that Hearns’ works contribute to the renovation of art and science later known as modernism that would flourish in the early twentieth century.