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Guest Editor's Introduction*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
Western science has played a fundamental role in the creation of the modern world.1 The emergence of modern science in Europe in the Renaissance accompanied and helped propel European overseas expansion.2 It played an important role in the conquest and colonization of Latin America, and in the "second conquest" in the aftermath of independence in the nineteenth century. Despite its importance, the history of science in Latin America has been inadequately cultivated, especially in comparison to themes such as land tenure, labor systems, slavery, and political power. A few Latin American nations-most notably Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, and Venezuela-have venerable traditions in the publication of works on the history of science that in some cases date back to the beginnings of the discipline in the early twentieth century.3 Only in recent years, however, have North American scholars begun to turn their attention to the history of Latin American science rather than the more intensely studied scientific traditions of Europe and the United States
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2002
Footnotes
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We are grateful to Patrick Peritore or the University of Missouri, Columbia for his comments and suggestions on this issue.
References
1 There is no single generally accepted definition of “modern science” or “western science.” As used in this essay, modern science refers to the methods and activities for studying the natural world that emerged in Europe beginning in the sixteenth century. The term includes both science as a methodology for studying and understanding the natural world as well as activities and institutions for promoting and diffusing the methodology. For a “classic account” of the Scientific Revolution, see Hall, A. Rupert, The Revolution in Science, 1500–1700, ed. (London: Longman, 1983).Google Scholar An excellent overview of the dilemmas of defining science and the Scientific Revolution is Cohen, H. Floris, The Scientific Revolution: A Historiographical Inquiry (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).Google Scholar
2 The classic article on the subject is Basalla, George, “The Spread of Western Science,” Science 156 (1967), pp. 611–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3 In Argentina and Cuba, in particular, prominent scholars such as José Babini and José Manuel Carbonell y Rivero were producing important studies of the history of science in the early twentieth century and contributing to the major journal in the field, Isis. See, for example, Babini, José, La ciencia en Argentina (Buenos Aires: EUDEBA, 1963)Google Scholar and Carbonell, José Manuel, y Rivero, La ciencia en Cuba (La Habana: Imprenta Montalvo y Cárdenas, 1928).Google Scholar The Sociedad Latinoamericana de Historia de las Ciencias y de la Tecnología was not organized until 1982. For an excellent survey of the literature, see Glick, Thomas F., “Science and Society in Twentieth-Century Latin America,” Cambridge History of Latin America, v. 6, pt. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 463–535 and 601-7.Google Scholar
4 For an excellent analysis of science in the region see McCook's, forthcoming States of Nature: Science, Agriculture, and Environment in the Spanish Caribbean, 1760–1940 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002).Google Scholar