Latin Americas
Drawings of an American aloe plant in Nürnberg, Christoph Trew, 1727
My postdoctoral research inquired into two themes. The first theme concerned the mobility of knowledge, arising from contact with the Latin Americas, in seventeenth century Germany. Scientists Johann Elsholtz and Johann Daniel Major directly observed “new” plants, such as the American aloe (americana agave) plant, in gardens throughout Germany. While they initially accepted Indigenous epistemes, such as reports from Indigenous in Peru who used fluid from the cactus plant to heal bladder stones, the German scientists soon faced the challenges of changing ontologies of American plants and their medicinal properties. This was mostly due to different climates between Germany and the Americas. But how did these scientists reconcile what they had read with what they saw? How did their common educational background at the University of Padua shape their consideration of climatic changes in their knowledge making of “new” plants?
The second theme of my project contrasted what was happening in Germany with institutional history in Mexico and Peru. While the College of Santa Cruz in Tlatelolco cultivated Indigenous medical knowledge, the Royal University of Mexico and the University of the City of the Kings in Peru did not incorporate this knowledge into their curriculum or theory building. But what counted as Indigenous knowledge in the first place, and what did not? What were the local circumstances and reasons that allowed one institution to incorporate this knowledge into its curriculum, and what were those that prevented such incorporations? I looked at how the colonial context, religion, and politics shaped how American medical materials were viewed at educational institutes in Mexico and Peru.
The second theme of my project contrasted what was happening in Germany with institutional history in Mexico and Peru. While the College of Santa Cruz in Tlatelolco cultivated Indigenous medical knowledge, the Royal University of Mexico and the University of the City of the Kings in Peru did not incorporate this knowledge into their curriculum or theory building. But what counted as Indigenous knowledge in the first place, and what did not? What were the local circumstances and reasons that allowed one institution to incorporate this knowledge into its curriculum, and what were those that prevented such incorporations? I looked at how the colonial context, religion, and politics shaped how American medical materials were viewed at educational institutes in Mexico and Peru.
