Guest Editor's Introduction

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.

The four essays in this volume represent important work on the history of science in Latin America, most notably the work of foreign scientists who turned to Latin America as one of the great natural laboratories on the planet for field science. Three of the essays (McCook, Henson, and Christen) began as papers on a panel at the 1998 meeting of the Latin American Studies Association in Chicago. The essay by Texera was commissioned to complete a foursome of articles on field science in the Caribbean Basin, focusing primarily on Panama, Costa Rica, and Venezuela. I happened to attend the 1998 LASA session, and given my own longstanding interest in the topic, I later agreed to serve as the guest editor for this volume.

Stuart McCook's fascinating essay, focuses on the efforts of scientists to bring order to the diversity of nature, in particular, to the rich flora of tropical America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He shows how the collecting and naming of species, a process that might seem so mundane and technical, in fact reveals a scientific mentality that pervaded the great liberal and positivistic traditions of turn-of-the-century Latin America. By "giving plants civil status," these scientists and their political patrons sought to commodify and tame nature and to advance the process of nation-building. Through a detailed case study of Costa Rica and Venezuela, especially the key role of the Swiss naturalist, Henri Pittier, McCook reveals the larger meaning of scientists' efforts to construct representations of nature in tropical America. ⁴

The next two articles examine the role of the Smithsonian Institution in the study of nature in the Neotropics (the tropics in the New World). Catherine Christen looks at the development of the Smithsonian's tropical science field stations in Panama and the Panama Canal Zone. Her essay highlights the contradictions and dilemmas presented by North American scientists working in a Latin American environment. Her careful analysis of the development of field science in the Canal Zone, primarily on the island of Barro Colorado in Gatun Lake, shows a long and complex debate within the North American scientific community, and between that community and Panamanians, over the goals and methods of science. What kind of science should be pursued and what should be the relationship of foreign scientists and the ecosystems and societies in which they work? The latter part of her essay, in particular, illuminates the growing disjuncture in the second half of the century between the agenda of North American scientists and the needs and wishes of the peoples in the region they are studying.

Pamela Henson also analyzes the role of the Smithsonian in the Canal Zone, by looking at the role of gender in the development of tropical field science, especially through the extraordinary career of Agnes Chase. Mining the rich archives of the Smithsonian, Henson shows us how Chase (and other women) represented a threat to the "old boy club" of...