Environmental History of Modern Latin America

2011 ◽  
pp. 443-460
Author(s):  
Lise Sedrez
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Latin America

Science and Technology in Modern Latin America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Ragas
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Agricultural Technologies ◽  
Scientific Communities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scholarly Networks ◽  
Modern Latin America

Science and technology are witnessing an auspicious moment in Latin America. Once associated exclusively with dictatorships, economic turmoil, and social unrest, the region is becoming an important technological hub according to the media and specialized magazines. Among the explanations for this “techno-scientific moment” is that scientific communities are expanding scholarly networks to communicate their findings in other languages, applying to external funding, pressing for more national funding, and carving a niche in the competitive scenario of journals and collaborative projects. A geopolitical shift has also contributed to this surge. For instance, the end of the embargo era promises a new epoch of cooperation between scholars in Cuba and the United States, something that we could only have imagined until a few years ago. As this occurs on the surface, scholars and resources keep flowing in multiple directions, strengthening less visible networks that serve as platforms for the next stages of creativity and innovation in the region. Techno-scientific communities are trying to find their own niches based on their own backgrounds by developing nascent areas and training future experts. New journals such as Tapuya: Latin America Science, Technology and Society and the visibility of minorities and vulnerable populations represent a good sign. It is also a good sign that science and technology in Latin America are no longer confined to laboratories and campuses. They are now part of the public debate in social media and the streets, where citizens and scientists engage in discussions on how governments should support scientists and knowledge as engines of development and democracy. To highlight the research on science and technology developed by scholars in and of Latin America, this bibliography offers a comprehensive compilation of references published in the last forty years. I have considered science and technology in a broader spectrum, suggesting studies that use the Science and Technology Studies (STS) approach even indirectly. Therefore, this bibliography compiles references extracted from books, edited volumes, journals, dissertations, newspapers, and websites. The references cover a chronological arch from the wars of Independence to the present published in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Due to the flexible and expansive nature of the STS field, which can also include the study of the environment and history of medicine, I have focused on areas that have not been covered by previous bibliographical essays. I encourage readers to complement this essay with other essays already published by Oxford Bibliographies: “Agricultural Technologies,” “Environmental History,” and “History of Health and Disease in Modern Latin America.”

The Battle Has Already Begun

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Erika Helgen
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Religious Competition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Os Sertoes ◽  
Brazilian Northeast ◽  
Modern Latin America

This chapter provides a background on Catholic–Protestant relations in the Brazilian Northeast. It talks about how the Brazilian Northeast became famous as a place of economic backwardness, political feuds, crippling droughts, popular unrest, and, religious fanaticism following the publication of Euclides da Cunha's Os sertões in 1902. It also looks into da Cunha's account of the Brazilian military's confrontation and eventual destruction of the allegedly fanatical millenarian community of Canudos, which made regional and national elites continuously fearful of the violent potential of northeastern religiosity. The chapter suggests a new religious history of modern Latin America that puts religious pluralism at the center rather than at the margins of historical analysis. It seeks to understand the ways in which religious competition and conflict redefined traditional relationships between church and state, lay and clergy, popular and official religion, and local and national interests.

Digital Resources: The Handbook of Latin American Studies

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine D. McCann ◽  
Tracy North
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Latin American ◽  
American Studies ◽  
Latin American Studies ◽  
Forthcoming Article ◽  
Latin American History ◽  
Atlantic Studies ◽  
History Of

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. Please check back later for the full article. The Handbook of Latin American Studies is a selective annotated bibliography of works about Latin America. Continuously published since 1936, the Handbook has been compiled and edited by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress for seventy-five years. Published works in multiple languages are selected for inclusion in the Handbook by a cadre of contributing editors, actively working scholars who provide a service to the field by annotating works of lasting scholarly value and writing bibliographical essays noting major trends, changes, and gaps in existing research. In 1995, the Hispanic Division launched the website HLAS Online, providing access to a database of more than 340,000 annotated citations. The ability to search across more than 50 volumes of the Handbook with a single query gave researchers unprecedented access to years of scholarship on Latin America. In 2000, HLAS Web, a new search interface with more robust functionality, was launched. The two sites link researchers worldwide to a vast body of selected resources on Latin America. The Handbook itself has become a record of the history of the field of Latin American studies and an indicator of changing trends in the field. With digital access to Handbook citations of books, articles, and more, scholars are able not only to identify specific works of interest, but also to follow the rise of new areas of study, such as women’s studies, cultural history, environmental history, and Atlantic studies, among others.

Animals in Latin American History

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Germán Vergara
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Latin American History ◽  
Biodiversity Crisis ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
History Of ◽  
Industrialization Process ◽  
Agrarian Societies

The evolutionary history of vertebrate nonhuman animals such as mammals in what is now Latin America extends back tens of millions of years. Given that anatomically modern humans first appeared in Africa a mere 200,000 years ago and would not reach Latin America until some 12,000 years ago, nonhuman animals in the region evolved for most of their history without interference from human activities. Once they appeared, humans began to shape the history of the region’s animals in profound ways. In fact, one could argue that animal history in Latin America has been a story of increasing human impact; from the Paleo-Indians, who may have driven countless species of megafauna to extinction; to the agrarian societies that domesticated species such as dogs, turkeys, and llamas (or tolerated the animals’ self-domestication); to the radical transformations brought about by the Columbian Exchange; to the industrialization process of the last two centuries. But animal history in the region is also marked by adaptation and agency on the part of animals, who have influenced the course of human history. This dynamic and adaptive human–animal relationship has been pushed to the limit during extinction pulses, manifest in the currently accelerating biodiversity crisis. Environmental history makes the convincing case that any historical account that neglects the environment offers an inaccurate depiction of the past. By the same token, animal historians suggest that a more complete understanding of history requires redefining its boundaries to include the often underappreciated story of nonhuman species and their interrelationships with human societies.

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