Darwinistas!: The Construction of Evolutionary Thought in Nineteenth Century Argentina

298 Pages·2012·2.775 MB·English

by  Alex Levine, Adriana Novoa

¡Darwinistas! The Construction of Evolutionary
Thought in Nineteenth Century Argentina
History of Science
and Medicine Library
VOLUME 27
Scientifijic and Learned
Cultures and
Their Institutions
Editor
M. Feingold
California Institute of Technology
VOLUME 5
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/hsml
¡Darwinistas!
The Construction of
Evolutionary Thought in
Nineteenth Century Argentina
Alex Levine
Adriana Novoa
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2012
Cover illustration: From Florentino Ameghino, Los cuatro infijinitos, Buenos Aires: Ediciones
America, 1919.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Levine, Alex, 1966–
 !Darwinistas! : the construction of evolutionary thought in nineteenth century Argentina / Alex
Levine, Adriana Novoa.
  p. cm. — (History of science and medicine library, ISSN 1872-0684 ; v. 27) (Scientifijic and
learned cultures and their institutions ; v. 5)
 Companion volume to: From man to ape : Darwinism in Argentina, 1870-1920. c2010.
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-22136-9 (hardcover : acid-free paper) 1. Evolution (Biology)—Argentina—
History—19th century. 2. Evolution (Biology)—Social aspects—Argentina—History—
19th century. 3. Scientists—Argentina—Biography. 4. Naturalists— Argentina—Biography. 
5. Darwin, Charles, 1809–1882. On the origin of species. 6. Darwin, Charles, 1809–1882—
Influence. 7. Science—Argentina—History—19th century. 8. Argentina—Intellectual life—
19th century. I. Novoa, Adriana, 1963– II. Novoa, Adriana, 1963– From man to ape. III. Title.
 QH361.L48 2012
 576.8’20982—dc23
2011042188
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ISSN 1872-0684
ISBN 978 90 04 22136 9 (hardback)
ISBN 978 90 04 22192 5 (e-book)
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements  ........................................................................................ vii
Introduction  ..................................................................................................... ix
I Darwin in Argentina  ........................................................................... 1
1. The Crisis of 1874  ........................................................................... 6
2. Darwinism Ascendant  .................................................................. 23
3. Darwinism in Disarray  ................................................................. 34
II Conflicting Systems  ............................................................................. 47
1. Progress or Regress? Evolution or Extinction?  ..................... 47
2. Unity or Diversity?  ........................................................................ 54
3. Natural Selection vs. Aesthetic Selection  ............................... 58
4. The Question of Spiritualism. The Philosophical
Crisis of Darwinism  ....................................................................... 72
5. Conclusion  ....................................................................................... 82
III Francisco Javier Muñiz (1795–1871)  ................................................ 85
The Muñi-Felis Bonaerensis (1845) ................................................. 91
IV Hermann Burmeister (1807–1891)  ................................................... 97
History of Creation (1870)  ................................................................. 102
V Francisco P. Moreno (1852–1919)  ..................................................... 113
Letter to His Father, Francisco F. Moreno (1875)  ...................... 117
Letter to His Father, Francisco F. Moreno (1875)  ...................... 119
VI Domingo F. Sarmiento (1811–1888)  ................................................. 125
Sheep Growing. Letter to the Editor of The Boston
Daily Advertiser, September 19, 1865  .......................................... 130
Lecture on Darwin (1882)  .................................................................. 133
vi contents
VII Eduardo Holmberg (1852–1937)  ....................................................... 161
A Struggle between Two Parties (1875)  ......................................... 166
Charles Robert Darwin (1882)  .......................................................... 183
VIII Florentino Ameghino (1854–1911)  .................................................... 195
Phylogeny—The Principles of Transformationist
Classifijication Based on Natural Laws and Mathematical
Proportions (1884)  ........................................................................... 200
Vision and Reality (Allegory for Philogeny, 1889)  ...................... 210
IX José Ingenieros (1877–1925)  ............................................................... 219
Simulation in the Struggle for Life (1900)  .................................... 223
On the Inferior Races (1905)  ............................................................. 230
X Carlos Octavio Bunge (1875–1918)  ................................................... 237
Travels through My Lineage (1908)  ................................................ 241
Bibliography  ..................................................................................................... 261
Index  ................................................................................................................... 275
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book, like its companion volume (Novoa and Levine 2010), was nearly
a decade in the making. In 2004, early drafts of several translations were
presented, along with our preliminary interpretations and arguments, to
the Philosophy Faculty Seminar at Lehigh University. Heartfelt thanks
are due to Gordon Bearn, Mark Bickhard, Robin Dillon, Steve Goldman,
Michael Mendelson, Roslyn Weiss, and to other colleagues at Lehigh,
among them Edurne Portela, Monica Najar, John Pettegrew, Stephanie
Watts, Jefff Fleisher, and Dawn Keetley. Lehigh’s magnifijicent library team,
including Philip Metzger and Pat Ward, were also enormously helpful.
In 2005 we moved to the University of South Florida, where we have
also benefijitted from the generosity of our colleagues, students, and friends.
Roger Ariew has been our tireless champion, offfering encouragement
and invaluable practical advice on many occasions. We have also been
fortunate enough to enjoy the company and scholarly judgment of Ella
Schmidt, Sonia Labrador, Pablo Brescia, Sandra Jaramillo, Naomi Yavneh,
Joanne Waugh, Madeline Camara, and Anat Pollack, among many others.
In the (Northern Hemisphere) Summer of 2009 one of us (Levine), spon-
sored by the Fulbright Foundation, presented pieces of this book to a gra-
duate seminar in the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras of the Universidad de
Buenos Aires, to whose students we remain indebted. In the Fall of 2009,
as the world celebrated the bicentennial of Charles Darwin, other pieces,
including late drafts of several translations, were presented to a graduate
seminar in the USF Department of Philosophy, to whose participants we
are likewise grateful. Central arguments from Ch. 2 were presented at
the “150 Years After Origin” conference at the University of Toronto in
November of that year, where we had the pleasure of discussing them
with André Ariew, Michael Dietrich, Evelyn Fox Keller, Lisa Lloyd, Nolan
Heie, and Joan Roughgarden.
Jim Secord offfered us encouragement just when we needed it most.
Series editor, Moti Feingold, has been enormously helpful and supportive.
One of his contributions was to send our manuscript for review to Thomas
F. Glick. We didn’t know this at the time, of course. But when the com-
ments arrived we recognized his style, his breadth of knowledge, and his
meticulous attention to detail, and he has since graciously accepted our
thanks. Professor Feingold gave us the suggestions that turned what was
viii acknowledgements
originally a much shorter, less ambitious introduction into what are now
the fijirst two chapters of this book. Professor Glick made a similar sug-
gestion. He also recommended major revisions to several chapters, most
notably Ch. 7. It was he who proposed that we include the translation
from Holmberg’s marvelous Dos Partidos, the addition of which has, in our
view, greatly increased the value of this book. These changes took time
and efffort, but they were worth it. Amie Winters and Andrew Winters
both read the fijinal manuscript in its entirety, suggesting many improve-
ments. Amie caught numerous errors great and small. Those that inevita-
bly remain are our own responsibility. Andrea Pitts was a great source of
praise and criticism, and her comments greatly improved the fijinal version
of this book.
None of our work would be possible without the support of our family
and friends. In addition to those mentioned above, these include, in no
particular order, Carlos, Maria Laura, Monica, and Susana Novoa; Agustín
Bruzzese; Maria Solla; Francisco Kroepfl; the entire Novoa-Laclau family;
Monica Szurmuk and family; Nick Levine, Alejandra Mendieta and their
family; Herb Levine and Sonja Hanstad; Anna Levine and the Levine-
Kanetani clan; Martha Baker and Malcolm Katz; Lucia and Mariana Stavig;
Isabella and Lily Shattenkirk; Patricia Chomnalez and family; Ana Lucía
Brescia Labrador; and Max Pollack. Finally, we thank our godson, Adriel
Bergman, whose company we love, and whose baby-sitting gifts gave us
precious time to fijinish this manuscript. As for Maia Levine-Novoa, we have
watched over the last few years as her attitude toward our work changed
from resentful incomprehension to grudging acceptance and fijinally even
pride. She now calls herself a historian and a philosopher, but we hope
that whatever she turns out to be, she will always be proud of us. She is a
most wonderful reason to get up in the morning.
Alex Levine, University of South Florida
Adriana Novoa, University of South Florida
INTRODUCTION
The very existence of a sourcebook, in English, on evolution, race, and
science in nineteenth century Argentina merits some explanation. The
second half of the nineteenth century was an important period in the his-
tory both of evolutionary theory and the Argentine Republic, and these
two historical moments occasionally intersected. But surely, a historian
of science might object, the central developments in evolutionary theory
all took place in Europe, half a world away from the fledgling Spanish-
American republics. And surely, a historian of Argentina might object, the
dominant intellectual current in the late nineteenth century was positi-
vism, a set of doctrines only distantly related to what scientists might
recognize as evolutionary theory.
This book arises out of our conviction that both objections deserve
some response. In support of a careful reassessment of the importance
of peripheral areas in the development of scientifijic thought, and the rele-
vance of Darwinism to Argentine history, our fijirst two chapters offfer a
close reading of relevant primary sources, some of the most important of
which are presented, in English translation, in the chapters that follow. It
is our belief that readers will come away from these sources with a clearer
sense both of the broader cultural situation with which Darwinism inte-
racted, and of its transformative impact on Argentine society in particular.
Properly contextualized, we believe, these texts make the case for themsel-
ves. After reading and analyzing the selections included, the importance
of Darwin’s evolutionary theory in Argentina will not only be evident, but
it will also illustrate the complicated path intellectuals of the second half
of the nineteenth century had to tread following the Darwinian revolu-
tion. As their writings demonstrate, the extent and depth of the resulting
transformation in the understanding of nature and humanity’s role in it
altered received ideas about civilization, population, and the very pos-
sibility of progress and evolution. Their position was also quite unique,
since the emergence of the new evolutionism caught them in the midst
of a political process of modernization, initiated in 1852, that depended
on the very ideology called into question by ideas such as natural
selection and the struggle for life. As our authors make clear, the whole
premise of universality that was inherited from the culture of the
Enlightenment could not well survive in a narrative that emphasized