Abstract

ARIAS VANEGAS, Julio. Beings, Bodies and Spirits of the Climate: Ideas of Race in the Work of Francisco José de Caldas?. rev.estud.soc. [online]. 2007, n.27, pp.16-30. ISSN 0123-885X.

In this article the author examines how the New Granadan Creole, Francisco José de Caldas, conceptualized human differences and the hierarchies between people at the beginning of the nineteenth century in order to explore his place within, and relations to, a genealogy of racial thought. Scholars have studied the so-called Disputa del Nuevo Mundo, the Semanario del Nuevo Reino de Granada and especially the work of Caldas in terms of such topics as the New Granadan Enlightenment and the construction of scientific knowledge. With these advances in mind, the article focues on the articulations between conceptions of what is human, the body, climate and nature, in Caldas. Its main purpose is to show the historic specificity of these conceptions, which should not be read anachronistically from a racial perspective, even though they are intertwined with many of the transformations that made them possible, such as the expert knowledge of naturalists, the coloniality of power and the horizon of civilization.

Keywords : Ideas of race; climate; genealogy; Francisco José de Caldas; New Kingdom of Granada.

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