Ignorance and `Habitus': Blinkered and Enlightened Approaches Towards the History of Science in Latin America

Authors: FISHER, JOHN; PRIEGO, NATALIA

Source: Bulletin of Latin American Research, Volume 25, Number 4, October 2006 , pp. 528-540(13)

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Abstract:

In broad terms, European students of the history of Latin America have concentrated their researches upon colonial policies, interactions between Europeans (and their American-born descendants) and indigenous peoples, economic and commercial structures, and political life (whether of elites or, more recently, of subaltern groups). The last two decades have witnessed a significant expansion in Britain and elsewhere of research into gender studies and cultural studies. Although the latter discipline embraces an awareness of the importance of the history of science, this has tended to be rather narrowly focussed upon travel writing, and the extent to which there were links between the promotion of scientific travel and both imperial and national projects, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, like the great British scientific travellers of the nineteenth century in Latin America, the works of cultural studies specialists tend to reveal more about European attitudes and misconceptions than Latin American reality.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-9856.2006.00210.x

Affiliations: 1: Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool, UK

Publication date: 2006-10-01