The image on the argentine Pampa to CH. Darwin: nature, landscapes and territories from his chronicle, 1832

Abstract

Charles Darwin, the man of science, travelled throughout the world -or quite about - to develop a keen appreciation of the land and the behavior of nature and its inhabitants as seen through the eyes of a naturalist. In his travels he visited the Argentine central plains, the “Pampas”. This work casts an eye on the role played by men of science in rationalizing, through their comprehension, the “new” lands that will then be minutely inventoried and subsequently added to their modern scientific knowledge stock as social resources. Geographical expeditions, and more especially the contribution of 19th century naturalists, were particularly important in this quest. With that aim in view, Darwin’s description of what is now known as part of the Pampas plains region will be selected as the basis for this analysis. His depiction of the area is both historically and geographically interesting, in that he was witness to a wild, untamed time well before any property fencing came up; before the waves of immigrants, the agricultural boom and the staking of vast rural estates; before indigenous were wiped out and replaced by “the whites”; in short, before the Pampas were taken over by the “gringo” as Argentina made way into modernity