Yonatan Duran Maturana
Knowledge Production, Imperial Networks, and Power: Global Dimensions of Ornithology in Nineteenth-Century Northern South America
This dissertation focuses on nineteenth-century northern South America, especially Colombia, and the flourishing practices of collecting, preserving, and circulating of bird specimens for European institutions. It focuses specifically on the bird collection known as “Bogota skins” and what I term the “Bucaramanga skins”, using them as a lens to explore socio-ecological, scientific, and environmental relationships between Northern South America and Europe. The case study posits that post-independence ornithological practice in Northern South America operated within transnational, polycentric social-ecological networks that integrated local knowledge and practices with European scientific traditions. These networks reinforced imperial hierarchies while relying on local expertise, resources, labor, producing a system of knowledge shaped by power asymmetries and mutual dependencies.
Methodologically, this subproject addresses three key lines of inquiry. First, it examines the roles of actors such as indigenous hunters, traders, and intermediaries in transforming Colombian avifauna into global natural object. Second, it analyzes the material practices of collection and transportation, focusing their adaptation to local environmental conditions and their role in shaping the representations of biodiversity. Third, it explores the commodification of avifauna as scientific artifacts, luxury commodities, and symbolic objects, highlighting the human and non-human forms of violence in these processes.
Photo Credits:
Description: Partially Skinned Bird
Source: British Museum (Natural History), Handbook of Instructions for Collectors, 4th ed. ( London, Printed by order of the Trustees, 1921), 37.
Ilustrator: Henrik Grønvold (1858–1940)