"The Invention of Humboldt is a game-changing volume of essays by leading scholars of the Hispanic world that explodes many myths about Alexander von Humboldt and his world. Rather than 'follow in Humboldt's footsteps' this book outlines the new critical horizon of 'post-Humboldtian' Studies: the archaeology of all that lies buried under the Baron's epistemological footprint. Contrary to the popular image of Humboldt as a solitary 'adventurer' and 'hero of science' surrounded by New World nature, The Invention of Humboldt demonstrates that the Baron's opus and practice was largely derivative of the knowledge communities and archives of the Hispanic world. Although Humboldtian writing has invented a powerful cult that has served to erase the sources of his knowledge and practice, in truth Humboldt did not 'invent nature' nor did he pioneer global science: he was the beneficiary of Iberian natural science and globalization. Nor was Humboldt a pioneering, 'postcolonial' cultural relativist. Instead, his anthropological views of the Americas were Orientalist and historicist, and in most ways were less enlightened than those of his Creole contemporaries. This book will reshape the landscape of Humboldt scholarship. It is essential reading for all those interested in Alexander von Humboldt, the Hispanic American enlightenment, and the global history of science and knowledge"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
The Apotheosis of Humboldt during the Nineteenth Century / Leoncio López-Ocón
A Sense of Place: Early Modern Roots of Humboldt's Natural History Practices / Florike Egmond
Six Days on Tenerife: The Making of Humboldt's Tropical Antique / Peter Mason
Caldas and Humboldt in the Andes: Who Invented Biogeography? / Alberto Gómez Gutiérrez
An Archaeology of Mutis' Disappearing Gift to Humboldt / José Antonio Amaya
Incas, Pyramids and Amazons: Notes on Humboldt's Equatorial Encounters / Neil Safier
Humboldt's Magic Mountain / Juan Pimentel
Peruvian Desencuentro: Humboldt's Fog, Unanue's Light / Mark Thurner
Air in a Flask: The Mexican Making of Humboldt's Objects of Knowledge / Miruna Achim and Gabriela Goldin Marcovich
Humboldt's Misreading of the Mercantilist Face of New Spain / José Enrique Covarrubias
Bonpland's Cactus, Or Trafficking in Exotics and Ignorance / Irina Podgorny
Humboldt's Columbus, Or the Iberian Worlds that Humboldt Ignored / Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra.
ISBN
9781032139173
103213917X (hardcover)
9781032139166 (paperback)
1032139161 (paperback)
LCCN
2022031308
OCLC
1334564052
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