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SUMMARY:Visions of useful nature in late-colonial Central America (c. 1770
 –1821) - Sophie Brockmann (Institute of Latin American Studies\, Univers
 ity of London)
DTSTART:20150209T130000Z
DTEND:20150209T141500Z
UID:TALK57287@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Margaret Carlyle
DESCRIPTION:This talk explores how Enlightenment ideas of progress\, impro
 vement and utility were applied to the mapping of landscapes and the study
  of natural resources at the 'periphery' of the Spanish Empire. As this ca
 se study from the _Audiencia de Guatemala_ shows\, projects designed to im
 prove the region's infrastructure\, from harbour works to road-building\, 
 were imagined not just as technological progress\, but took into account t
 he natural world of the region\, re-imagining the climate and natural prod
 uctions of the lands alongside planning new infrastructure. While the conc
 eptualisation of the natural world in these projects drew on broader Enlig
 htenment ideas about the perfectibility of nature\, it also relied on the 
 creation of locally specific geographical and natural-historical knowledge
 . By highlighting the networks of travel and correspondence around a local
  patriotic society that championed such geographical projects (the _Socied
 ad Económica de Amigos del País_) we can explore the relationship betwee
 n the local production and regional travel of different types of 'natural'
  knowledge\, and the broader intellectual and political context of the imp
 rovement projects.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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