Foreign scientists, the Rockefeller foundation and the origins of agricultural science in Venezuela

Abstract

THE FOREIGN SCIENTISTS working in the first stages of scientific activity in the tropics were "expatriate scientists". Although their professional careers occurred entirely in the countries to which they emigrated, these were also expatriate careers which were defined by the criteria of scientific careers in metropolitan countries. Their achievements were assessed by the criteria prevailing in metropolitan countries. "French scientific functionary", "German research worker" , or "mercantilist scientific agent" , although very different among themselves, fall nonetheless within this group which was defined according to the standards of the scientific metropolis? Some of them acted as "gate-keepers" of science in the poor countries where they worked; they determined which scientific knowledge was to be admitted, and which was to be rejected. This was true of most of the expatriate scientists. Where they worked in a colonial territory, they were employed by the colonial government in its scientific services, or they were assimilated with a missionary body, or a philanthropic institution with its headquarters in the metropolis. There was also another category of foreign scientist. They remained within the scientific code of their mother country, and lived quite isolated lives among the native scientists) There were individual exceptions. Not all foreign scientists who arrived in Latin America did so to further the colonial policies of the advanced countries. Sometimes in the scientifically backward countries which were independent , foreign scientists were invited by the indigenous government or a subsidiary institution. Often, it was on the initiative of Latin American governments that European or North American scientists were brought into their countries? It was very common for them to arrive with