Abstract
The present article is elaborated in two parts. In the first part, we present a survey of authors and their works that throughout the second half of the 20th century, developed significant references for the history of science in Brazil, establishing and consolidating this field of studies in the country, with an exacerbated emphasis on the historical aspects that occurred in Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In the second part of the article, we present a concrete historical experience in the 19th century, in the province of Ceará, totally disregarded by the traditional and the current historiographic production of history of science. This situation ultimately raises the question: What is the history of Brazilian science? What are the determinants of the history of science in Brazil? To what extent is the history of science in Brazil national?
Highlights
In 1956, the Brazilian sociologist from Minas Gerais and based in São Paulo, Fernando de Azevedo, published the book A Ciência no Brasil [Science in Brazil] (Azevedo 1956),2 the result of a commission made by the Larragoiti foundation, an institution created in 1950 by Sul América Companhia de Seguros de Vida [South America Life Insurance Company] (SulAmérica)
Fernando de Azevedo (1956) organized a collective work, in two volumes, with 14 chapters,4 in which he stated that the sciences in Brazil following all scientific requirements, it is the exclusive result of the University of São Paulo - USP, founded in the city of São Paulo in 1934
When we look at the curriculum vitae of professor Maria Amélia Dantes11 - one of the main researchers on this topic in Brazil and Latin America, we realize that she guided postgraduate students in History at USP, as well as had been a member of several postgraduate boards (Masters and Doctorate) that presented research objects located in different places in the country, Acre, Bahia, Ceará, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará, Paraná, for example
Summary
In the second half of the 1990s, readers received a book by Maria Margaret Lopes, entitled: O Brasil descobre a pesquisa científica: os museus de ciências naturais no século XIX [Brazil discovers scientific research: natural science museums in the 19th century] (Lopes 1997), as the result of her PhD in history, with an emphasis on the history of science, in University of São Paulo, under the supervision of Professor Maria Amélia Mascarenhas Dantes. This problem would be fully solved if, after just one volume, the USP professor published two or three books, reserving for the subsequent volumes an adequate focus on these “other realities” not contemplated in the single volume published in 2001 After this presentation, the historiography of science is evident, emphasizing works and authors more focused on or related to the studies of natural history museums in the country, whose orientation demonstrates an appreciation of the activities developed in the southern area of Brazil. See (Mcgill 1994); (Daston and Galison 2010)
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