Parece que por fin en el mundo académico anglosajón se están dando cuenta de las aportaciones españolas al conocimiento científico, y fruto de este interés es la obra de Helen Cowie, profesora en la universidad de York. El libro que aquí presentamos, Conquering nature in Spain and its empire (1750-1850)(Manchester University Press, 2011) examina el estudio de la historia natural en el ámbito hispánico durante este período. Transcribimos los comentarios de la autora al respecto:My doctoral research explored the study of natural history in the Spanish Empire in the years 1750-1850. During this period, Spain made strenuous efforts to survey, inventory and exploit the natural productions of its overseas possessions, choreographing a series of scientific expeditions to the New World and cultivating and displaying American fauna, flora and minerals in metropolitan gardens and museums. I studied the tactics used to acquire specimens, examining both the contribution of formal scientific expeditions, orchestrated by the Spanish Crown and the less glamorous, but equally valuable, remissions of specimens made by overseas bureaucrats, priests and military personnel, who responded to royal orders requesting plants, animals and ethnographic artefacts. I considered how and where knowledge about the natural world was created, assessing the relative merits of the field and the botanical garden or museum as sites for scientific research. I also highlighted the transatlantic dimension of natural history in the Hispanic World, discussing the role of colonial naturalists within the imperial scientific project and the emergence of national scientific institutions in Spanish America in the post-independence period.
Indice. Morals and monuments. Sloth bones and anteater tongues. Nature on display. Peripheral vision. The creole conundrum. Civilisation and barbarism. Naturalistes sans frontières.