History and historiography of Latin American sciences

Quipu (1984-2000)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the constitution of the field of history of science and technology in Brazil and Latin America. My intent is to read thoroughly a significant specific journal and evaluate its role on studies of science and society. I evaluate published articles in Quipu – Revista Latinoamericana de Historia de las Ciencias y la Tecnología, which circulated from 1984 to 2000, as a set of documents that shows the trajectory of knowledge undergone by Latin American science studies. I seek to understand how different authors in their national contexts shaped the history of science and technology locally. In order to do so, I investigate how Latin Americans handled their encounter with different perspectives from the European and North American literature on the subject. It was amid these encounters that a collective process emerged strongly enough to indicate the formation of an epistemic community. This community was dedicated to research and discussed new agreements and new understandings about what science and technology in Latin America was and what it could turn out to be.