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SUMMARY:Locating indigenous knowledge in the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae 
 (1648) - Mariana Françozo (Leiden University)
DTSTART:20160229T130000Z
DTEND:20160229T141500Z
UID:TALK63634@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:39097
DESCRIPTION:The _Historia Naturalis Brasiliae_ (1648) is the earliest publ
 ished treatise on the natural history of Brazil. Edited by Johannes de Lae
 t from the notes made by Willem Piso and Georg Marcgraf in colonial Dutch 
 Brazil (1637–41)\, it remained the authoritative source on South America
 n flora and fauna well into the nineteenth century. The names\, descriptio
 ns and definitions in this encyclopaedic work are mainly based on Piso's a
 nd Marcgraf's contact with local populations and indigenous groups in nort
 heastern Brazil\, who provided them with botanical and zoological specimen
 s as well as information about their characteristics and uses. However\, w
 hile the HNB has been subject of numerous studies\, its reliance on indige
 nous knowledge about the natural world it describes has yet to be properly
  studied. In this presentation\, by discussing the botanical sections of t
 he HNB\, I will argue that the book is a comparative ethno-botanical catal
 ogue of plant names and plant uses that compares Brazilian species to plan
 ts existing in or imported from West Africa\, New Spain\, and the Caribbea
 n. Additionally\, I will consider the material culture associated with the
  indigenous knowledge-practices described in the book in order to connect 
 the HNB with collections presently kept in European museums.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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