De la naturaleza a la representación. Ciencia en los andes meridionales

Abstract

Utilizing the cartographic and textual depictions of the southern Andes made by naturalists such as Malaspina, Darwin, Gay, Burmeister, Gillis and Humboldt between 1793 and 1862, this article identifies scientific conceptions, notions and representations of a natural phenomenon that was alternately interpreted as a transportation route, the profile of a nation, a geologic manifestation of the earth’s inner forces and the contour of the planet. This demonstrates how a scientific instrument, conceptual framework or scientific method is not enough to guarantee a uniform understanding of a natural phenomenon such as a mountain, and how the objectives, interests and contexts involved in each of the cases studied determined their representations of nature.