Between the national and the universal: natural history networks in Latin America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This essay examines contemporary Latin American historical writing about natural history from the nineteenth through the twentieth centuries. Natural history is a "network science," woven out of connections and communications between diverse people and centers of scholarship, all against a backdrop of complex political and economic changes. Latin American naturalists navigated a tension between promoting national science and participating in "universal" science. These tensions between the national and the universal have also been reflected in historical writing on Latin America. Since the 1980s, narratives that recognize Latin Americans' active role have become more notable within the renewal of the history of Latin American science. However, the nationalist slant of these approaches has kept Latin American historiography on the margins. The networked nature of natural history and Latin America's active role in it afford an opportunity to end the historiographic isolation of Latin America and situate it within world history.
Regina Horta
RH
Duarte
D036262:Empirical Research; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation / Q000266:history*; D007843:Latin America; D019021:Natural History / Q000266:history*; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000266:history*; D012586:Science / Q000266:history*; D012922:Social Change; D014956:Writing / Q000266:history*