15/09/2015 Programme | 24th International Congress of History of Science, Technology and Medicine

iCHSTM 2013 Programme • Version 5.3.6, 27 July 2013 • ONLINE (includes late changes)
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Philosophical travels in the Portuguese world:

perceptions and experiences in fieldwork,
1777-1808
Ermelinda PATACA | Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
Part of S113. Geologists in the field
In S113-D: Fieldwork case studies
» Fri 26 July, 16:10–17:40

In the late eighteenth century Portugal created an intense effort to research colonies through
Philosophical Travels. In this paper we propose to analyze the performance of the travelers on the
Portuguese World - the Kingdom and the colonies in America, Africa and Asia. We analyze the
creation of the perception and experience of travelers in two distinct political moments by the
administration of Ministers of the Navy and Overseas Dominions - Martinho de Melo e Castro (1777-
1795) and D. Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho (1796-1808). We analyze the travels circumstantially,
evaluating how the trips were conditioned by the dynamics of the Portuguese empire built over the
colonization process. During the two ministries were created conditions of mobility or fixity of the
travelers on the Portuguese World who determined the complexity involved in field work in each
period. We analyze the continuities and discontinuities between the two moments, through the
creation of four distinct groups of travels. At first we analyze the performance of the naturalists who
returned to Lisbon at the end of his voyages to the colonies and assumed administrative positions in
important Portuguese scientific institutions to direct new naturalists in travels. The second group is
characterized by fixity of travelers who stayed at the same area after the exchange of ministry, which
provided more detailed observations of the places. Mobility is characteristic of the third group of
travelers who explored new regions of the Portuguese Empire. Finally, the last group will feature
perceptions completely new, since they left Lisbon towards the colonies for the first time. We
analyzed the extensive documentation of texts and images created during the process to perceive the
distinctions between the groups. We constructed detailed everyday routine of travelers to evaluate
the complexity involved in field practices and the creation of new benchmarks of observation and
interpretation in the period. The perception and the performance of naturalists are distinguished by
expertise in distinct geographical and geological environments along the Portuguese World. Aspects
such as topography, climate, hydrography and vegetation determined the routes, practice field,
results and records of each trip.

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