Abstract

RESTREPO FORERO, OLGA. The ‘Mundialización’ (Worldness) of Darwinism as Process and as Text. Acta biol.Colomb. [online]. 2009, vol.14, suppl.1, pp. 41-62. ISSN 0120-548X.

The phenomenon of the diffusion of Darwinism has been extensively studied. Not only is there a "Darwin Industry" concerned with investigating how Darwin’s work was produced, there is also a "Diffusion of Darwinism Industry", that investigates the processes of reception of Darwinism in various parts of the world. In this article, I question the intellectual independence of studies that examine the production of the Origin of Species from those that study its subsequent diffusion. Based on a small number of examples, I show Darwin producing and modifying his work from the contributions he collected from around the world and from the responses he received in commentaries and discussions. Finally I examine how, in the course of studying the ‘mundialización’ (worldness) of Darwinism, the problem arises of defining the phenomenon under study: either from a normative perspective, that seeks to impose an order on the proliferation of versions arising as a result of this global expansion, or from a non-essentialist perspective that seeks to better situate Darwinism in relation to its different uses and local appropriations.

Keywords : diffusion; Darwinism; history of biology; ‘mundialización’; worldness.