ABSTRACT
Work is an anachronistic concept that has social and symbolic asymmetries inscribed within it. In order to analytically grasp the practices of science in the domestic sphere in all their divergences, one initially has to do exactly this: place all activities on the same level and consider them as work. This chapter draws primarily on three interdisciplinary shifts in the history of sciences during the last decades, mainly informed by sociology, gender studies and anthropology. Astronomy in particular seems to have been a field of knowledge which was taught in the domestic sphere rather than in formal institutions. Until the nineteenth century, the pursuit of natural knowledge was less formalized and more connected with artisanal traditions and training schemes within the domestic sphere. The domestic scholarly teaching of children by their fathers was also common in other fields.
