Landscapes of an uncertain progress: Northern Patagonia in Argentine scientific journals (1876–1909)1
2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 16; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13569320701682476
ISSN1469-9575
Autores Tópico(s)Historical Studies in Science
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 This article is the result of a research project undertaken at Universidad Nacional del Comahue (Argentina), entitled El aporte científico a la resignificación de la Patagonia, 1880–1916. Its principal ideas were exposed and discussed at the X Jornadas Interescuelas/Departamentos de Historia (Rosario, 2005), coordinated by Perla Zusman. I am grateful for commentaries and suggestions received on that occasion, from Perla Zusman, Liliana DaOrden, Hugo Beck and other co-panellists, as well as from Mirta Teobaldo, María Andrea Nicoletti and Alicia Laurín, in the context of the Universidad del Comahue's Seminario Interno del Centro de Estudios Patagónicos, and from Jens Andermann in personal exchanges. 2 At the same time, a space colonized for centuries such as the Argentine Northeast would also become the object of survey and re-signification during the same period, owing to its marginality and exoticism (Castro, 2005). 3 This representation continued an already established tradition: in the Atlas of V. Martin de Moussy (in the 'Carte de la Province de Mendoza, de l'Araucanie et de la plus grande partie du Chili', 1865, which features the international limit, and in the 'Carte de la Patagonie et les archipels de la Terre de Feu, des Malouines et des côtes occidentals jusqu'au Golfe de Reloncavi', 1865, where it is omitted), the border seems to follow the watershed where it was already better known thanks to the explorations of Cox – positioning the Lácar volcano on the Chilean side of the border – but the line of highest peaks is indicated as being further south, between the Nahuel Huapi and latitude 45°, including the volcanoes Michinmahuida, Corcovado and Nevado, and the summits of the Melimoyu, Montalat and Macá, today belonging to Chile. On the 'Mapa de la República Argentina' drawn by the engineers A. Seelstrang and A. Tourmente at the request of the Argentine Central Committee for the Philadelphia world's fair (Buenos Aires, 1875), the northern Patagonian limit between Argentina and Chile follows the same criteria; still on the map of Chubut Territory produced by the engineer Ezcurra and published by the IGA in 1895, even though the border between Argentina and Chile coincides with the present-day one, the highest peaks are indicated as further west (BIGA XVI, 1895: maps between pp. 226–7). 4 The railway from Bahia Blanca to Chile was started in 1896 in the port-city of southern Buenos Aires province, reaching Confluencia (today Neuquén) in 1899, but its trajectory came to a halt in 1913 in Zapala, its furthest extension until today despite multiple projects to finish the bi-oceanic project. The San Antonio–Nahuel Huapi branch, also initially designed to reach the Pacific by interconnection with other transverse and parallel tracks, part of an integrated (and never realized) project of industrial development, was started in 1909, only reaching San Carlos de Bariloche in 1934. 5 In Mémoires d' archéologie ( 1878 Lista, Ramón. 1878. Mémoires d'archéologie, Buenos Aires: Peuser. [Google Scholar] ) Lista included three studies, 'Sur les débris humains fossils signalés dans la République Argentine' (originally published in the Journal de Zoologie, VI, 1877, Paris), 'Sur les Indiens querandis', and 'Les cimetières et paraderos minuanes de la province d'Entre-Rios' (originally in Revue d' anthropologie I, 1878, Paris). These were related to a polemic Lista maintained with Florentino Ameghino regarding the age of the human remains found across the River Plate region (Torcelli, 1915 Torcelli, AlfredoJ.(dir.). 1915. Obras completas y correspondencia científica de Florentino Ameghino, La Plata: Taller de impresiones oficiales. Vol. II: 'Primeros trabajos científicos' [Google Scholar]: 141–4). 6 In the realm of the IGA, this attitude would only be challenged at the beginning of the twentieth century by Elina González de Correa Morales (Zusman, 1996 Zusman, Perla Brígida. 1996. Sociedades Geográficas na promoção do saber ao respeito do territorio, Estratégias políticas e acadêmicas das instituções geográficas na Argentina (1879–1942) e no Brasil (1838-1945). Universidade de São Paulo, Dissertação de Mestrado em Integração da Amërica Latina. [Google Scholar]: 65–74), who qualifies as deplorable the deformation and ignorance of the native toponymy and the circumstantial renaming of geographical features with the surnames of functionaries, recommending that military officers study the Mapuche language (BIGA XXIII, 1909: 166). 7 In a detailed analysis, Kurtz and Bodenbender agree with Avé-Lallemant's critique of Pissis, commending the engineer for his work, and appreciate the value of Rohde's itinerary for the southern section of their journey. Notably, it is considered today (in contrast with geographical work carried out during the period) that 'although new sophisticated methods and recent global concepts certainly permitted the specification and completion of Bodenbender's work, his investigations certainly left a clear and stable basis for the studies developed by his successors' (Miller, 2005 Miller, Hubert. 2005. "Wilhelm Bodenbender: reseña de su vida". In Simposio Bodenbender, Edited by: Aceñolaza, F. G. Tucumán: INSUGEO. [Google Scholar]: 12). The expedition to Neuquén was the first undertaken by Bodenbender in Argentina (Hünicken, 2005 Hünicken, Mario A. 2005. "Doctor Guillermo Bodenbender, su obra geológica en Argentina". In Simposio Bodenbender, Edited by: Aceñolaza, F. G. Tucumán: INSUGEO. [Google Scholar]: 16–17). 8 Moreno probably refers to the Limay Territory, as included in the project for a Law of National Territories presented in 1872 by a Senate Commission chaired by Bartolomé Mitre, which later disappeared mysteriously (República Argentina, 1894 República Argentina, Congreso de la Nación Argentina. 1894. Actas de las sesiones de la Cámara de Senadores, Período de 1872, Buenos Aires: Compañía Sud-Americana de Billetes de Banco. [Google Scholar]: 24–6). Despite never having been approved, this project remained the only official representation of the Territories until Law 1532 of 1884 established the present demarcations.
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