Suchergebnisse

Brazilian society was shaken by turmoil in the 1920s and 1930s. The country was rocked by heated debates over race and immigration, burgeoning social movements in cities and the countryside, entrenched oligarchies clinging to power, and nature being despoiled. Against this turbulent backdrop, a group of biology scholars at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro joined the drive to renew the Brazilian nation, claiming as their weapon the voice of their fledgling field. Without discarding scientific rigor, they embraced biology as a creed and activism as a conviction—and achieved success in their bid to influence public policy in environmental protection and the rational use of natural resources. For the first time in English, Brazil's leading environmental historian, Regina Horta Duarte, brings us a nuanced analysis of the National Museum of Brazil's contribution to that country's formation and history. In "Activist Biology", Duarte explores the careers of three of these scientists as they leveraged biology as a strategy for change. Devoted to educational initiatives, they organized exhibits, promoted educational film and radio, wrote books, published science communication magazines, fostered school museums, and authored textbooks for young people. Their approach was transdisciplinary, and their reliance on multimedia formats was pioneering. Capturing a crucial period in Brazil's history, this portrait of science as a creative and potentially transformative pathway will intrigue anyone fascinated by environmental history, museums, and the history of science. Duarte skillfully shows how Brazilian science furthered global scientific knowledge in ways that are relevant now more than ever.

AbstractThis study focuses on the first gated communities in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, which were developed between 1951 and 1964. In an era of democracy and economic growth, the Brazilian government promoted infrastructural improvements and attracted foreign capital. However, there was a concomitant increase in inequality and poverty, and deep-rooted political conflicts. Notwithstanding the varying motivations of those who chose to live in gated communities, this article argues that the attempt by elites to establish a lifestyle of leisure and European-style sophistication in these enclaves had political, ethnic, class and gender implications. Their self-segregation strengthened the patrimonialism and authoritarianism in politics that would prevail during the ensuing military dictatorship.

Cândido de Mello Leitão (1886-1948) iniciou sua carreira como médico pediatra. Sua extrema dedicação ao estudo das aranhas o tornou um dos maiores aracnólogos de seu tempo, amplamente reconhecido por seus pares. Este artigo analisa alguns aspectos de sua trajetória profissional norteado pela seguinte pergunta: como um biólogo se formava na primeira metade do século XX no Brasil, época em que inexistiam cursos específicos de ciências biológicas e a profissão não era oficialmente reconhecida? Os resultados da pesquisa - realizada em livros, jornais e documentos pessoais de Mello Leitão - mostram como essa especialização surgiu no entrecruzamento entre as experiências práticas vividas em várias instituições científicas, as relações de colaboração nacionais e internacionais e o devir das condições sociais e históricas. Estudioso de aranhas, Mello Leitão era realmente grande conhecedor de redes, e foi nelas que se formou. No seio dessas relações pessoais e institucionais, construiu e divulgou conhecimentos, projetou papéis para si e seus colegas, para as diversas instituições nas quais atuou e para a biologia que praticou.

Através do estudo de caso da arborização de uma Avenida de Belo Horizonte enfatizamos a importância das relações entre os homens e a natureza no meio urbano. O corte de 350 Fícus benjamina ao longo da Avenida Afonso Pena, às vésperas do golpe militar de 1964 - numa polêmica decisão da prefeitura que dividiu os habitantes - assumiu significados afetivos, urbanísticos, sociais e, sobretudo, políticos.

This book is the result of a collaborative effort in which environmental historians from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa came together to offer new perspectives on the new and somehow intriguing entity. These scholars forged a dialogue from their own historical traditions to find common threads and common challenges. The contributors focus on three basic themes that can serve as building blocks for future research: the state, the civil society, and the academia, that is, what has been written in each country on the relations between nature and society over time. The historical perspective is crucial for understanding the environmental and social challenges which might be faced by the BRICS nations in the years to come

Primera Parte. Historias de países, regiones y paisajes. Las revoluciones ecológicas de México / Chris Boyer, Martha Micheline Cariño Olvera. El gran caribe en la metamorfosis de la tropicalidad / Reinaldo Funes Monzote. Improntas y remanentes indígenas en los Andes tropicales / Nicolás Cuvi. El dilema de la "cuna espléndida": naturaleza y territorio en la construcción de Brasil / José Augusto Pádua. Selvas: amenazantes y amenazadas / Claudia Leal. El muro y la hiedra: narrativas ambientales de un continente urbano / Lise Sedrez, Regina Horta Duarte -- Segunda Parte. Historias transversales. Cocina casera: campesinos, cocina v diversidad agrícola / John Soluri. Un continente cubierto de pasto: ganadería y transformación del paisaje / Shaw Van Ausdal, Robell W. Wilcox. Desde el fondo de la tierra: trabajadores, naturaleza y comunidades en las industrias minera y petrolera / Myrna Santiago. Prodigalidad y sostenibilidad: las ciencias ambientales y la búsqueda del desarrollo / Stuart McCook. Parques latinoamericanos: naturaleza profunda, despoblamiento y el ritmo variable de la conservación / Emily Wakild.