Technology and Evolution: Revamping a Relation for Regional Environmental History in Latin America

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32991/2237-2717.2024v14i1.p175-202

Keywords:

technology, niche construction theory, historical ecology, posthumanism

Abstract

This paper explores the topic of technology as an input for Latin American environmental history, taking up, on the one hand, a critical approach to the relationship between technology and the environment and, on the other, recalibrating the scope of the historical horizon from which it can be technology as a guiding thread of research in environmental history. If the posthumanist turn in the social sciences is taken into account, the focus of attention of environmental history goes back beyond the great periods of modernity. Likewise, if the resource of the longue durée is dispensed with and if the interfaces with the natural sciences such as ecology, geology, among others, are considered, environmental history often makes use of an evolutionary framework as an explanatory resource. By virtue of the above, it is necessary to address what type of evolutionism is consonant with the epistemic assumptions of contemporary environmental historiography, I discuss  Niche Construction Theory and Historical Ecology, especially in relation to the decentering of the anthropos, as well as in terms of envisioning an integral environmental history in Latin America.

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Published

2024-03-27

How to Cite

Villagómez-Reséndiz, R. (2024). Technology and Evolution: Revamping a Relation for Regional Environmental History in Latin America. Historia Ambiental Latinoamericana Y Caribeña (HALAC) Revista De La Solcha, 14(1), 175–202. https://doi.org/10.32991/2237-2717.2024v14i1.p175-202

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