Collection and Discovery: Indigenous Guides and Alfred Russel Wallace in Southeast Asia, 1854-1862

Abstract

This study uses the correspondence and published narratives of Alfred Russel Wallace's travels in Southeast Asia to reveal the significant contributions of indigenous Southeast Asians in the development and advancement of scientific knowledge in the region. This analysis problematizes the Eurocentric narrative of discovery as a primarily white, male endeavour, and instead argues that discovery could only occur with the assistance of a vast network of knowledge and exchange. Chinese immigrants, female travel writers, indigenous tribes, and European assistants made up a significant part of this network, but scientists such as Wallace often exclude these people from their public narratives of "discovery. "Between the seventeenth and nineteenth century, a significant shift in European attitudes towards the collection and diffusion of plants found in the extra-European world occurred. As Londa Schiebinger points out, bio-prospecting (the collection and diffusion of commodity plants such as drugs or food) became a highly profitable business during early European expansion in the Americas and Asia. European governments protected their colonial borders fiercely in order to prevent rival powers' access to commodity plants that they had found, although such monopolies were inevitably threatened by smugglers. 1 However, the nineteenth century represented a shift away from such mercantilist thought as it marked a growth in inter-European and inter-imperial collaboration that permitted naturalists to collect flora and fauna wherever they wished and gain access to foreign botanical gardens and natural museums. Consequently, "European" or "Western" (rather than, for example, French, British or German) science and notably botany -a field that Imperialism created hierarchies of power that were also reflected in interactions between European naturalists and local peoples. Indeed, conventional Eurocentric narratives of nineteenth-century botanic and other scientific explorations portray such expeditions as primarily white, male endeavors. Again, while most historians of colonial botany acknowledge that botanists and naturalists used local guides to collect specimens and indigenous information, they rarely accord these assistants more than cursory attention. Some historians of science and empire -a growing field of historical inquiry -focus on the development and hardening of colonial categories such as gender, race and class; others discuss the worldwide search for drugs and natural commodities that spurred European expansion in the Americas, Africa and Asia. 4 However, several historians neglect the diversity of people, notably those indigenous to the region concerned, engaged in the network of exchange of ideas and knowledge as well as in the collection of plant and animal specimens.This study focuses on the work of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823Wallace ( -1913, one of the most famous naturalist explorers and the subject of a considerable literature. For eight years, Wallace visited various Southeast Asian islands collecti...

Viagens E Turismo: Emília Snethlage E Heloisa Alberto Torres as Cientistas E Viajantes Da Amazônia Do Século Xx

“…Deve-se enfatizar nessa discussão que o imaginário amazônico atraia, e ainda convida olhares de diversas áreas do conhecimento. E estudos como os de Mccormack (2017) ajudam a compreender como a relação do contato entre viajantes e a sociedade local formou redes de conhecimento sociais, culturais e científicos, por meio de viajantes, em destaque Alfred Russel Wallace e Alexandre Von Humboldt.…”

Intellectualist premise of folk names support their restoration in formal taxonomy

“…This ability of folk names to recognize introducers of cultivars should be juxtaposed against the reluctance of formal taxonomy to acknowledge the prowess of local communities, and the priority they deserve. Indeed, colonial researchers who made substantial use of local knowledge in their discoveries are portrayed as solo discoverers (McCormack 2017). Such colonial legacies are not a thing of the past, but continue even today.…”

Intertextuality and knowledge translation in travel reports: the Capim River and its inhabitants in the narratives of Alfred Russel Wallace (1849), João Barbosa Rodrigues (1874–1875) and Emil Goeldi (1897)

“…7 6 The interaction between travelers and local residents has gained the attention of researchers and seems to be an unavoidable trend in investigations. In the case of Wallace, see Camerini (1996), Moreira (2002), Lima (2014), McCormack (2017, Antunes et al (2019) and Antunes (2021); in the case of Barbosa Rodrigues, see Ximenes (2020); in the case of Goeldi and Huber, see Sanjad (2010, 2019, Castro (2020) and Coelho (2021). Other studies worth mentioning are Vital & Hochman (2013), Sanjad et al (2021) and Domingues & Alves-Melo (2021).…”