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Apparently, the etymology of 'evidens' points to Old French in which it denotes an appearance from which can be drawn an inference. This can be clarified with reference to classical Latin’s evidens which means obvious or apparent. In these versions evidence is something that makes itself available to us – it appears to us in its obviousness and clarity. This is one particular version of evidence . By contrast, evidence can be attached to a practical process of investigation and integration in which clarity and obviousness are hard won, and even then contingent. This practical process might be said to be performative on several levels: through various protocols, we perform our objects of investigation, but also our colleagues and competitors. In otherwords, we dramatize the natural and the social worlds together in particular ways.
So after complaining about breathing problems, my daughter went to her G.P. and left with an inhaler. My response was one of disbelief – I thought she was joking even though I had been the one to suggest a half-remembered link between asthma and eczema (which she has long had). She said that the G.P. had said that the eczema had spread to her lungs. Her mother, my partner, who had gone with her, said the G.P. did not say that, but had mentioned that there was some connection between asthma and eczema. My response was to start looking up this possible link on the web. Here is a small glimpse of some of the gendered and generational relations to, and practices toward evidence. Perhaps it might be useful to think of evidence as a performance that dramatizes the world (in this case a medical condition) in ways that also perform (differences amongst)individuals, families, communities and movements. And vice versa.
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