UNFOLDING THE NETWORKS AND CIRCULATION OF GEOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE IN THE 19TH CENTURY NORTHERN ANDES

ABSTRACT

The human actors of the circulation of geo-knowledge in the northern Andes (Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela), during the 19^th century, are identified, characterized, and analyzed from a connected and decolonial approach. A map of persons and institutions has been created as a proxy to visualize their connections through fieldwork, cabinet work, collecting, publishing, associations, and friendship, in academic, private, and state institutions. Dozens of local and foreign ‘formal’ naturalists have been studied, as well as ‘non-formal’ actors of various kinds, who were mentioned with varying degrees of specificity by the formal naturalists but are less documented in historical literature. All these actors and networks contributed to the construction of geo-knowledge and meanings of nature and society, although not without controversies.