Comments on: Andres I Prieto’s Missionary Scientists: Jesuit Science in Spanish South America, 1570-1810

By: Some Random Dude

Some Random Dude — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 15:10:50 +0000

Kerry,

I completely agree with your assessment in your second-to-last paragraph. However, I thought that Prieto’s discussion of the long collaboration between Mascardi and Lozano at the end of chapter six went some way toward addressing the dearth of actual science going on in this book. Lozano’s findings from parallax measurements on comets — they are “above the moon but below the stars” are truly astounding for their day, and wouldn’t gave been possible without the geographically distributed network the Jesuits created. Considering the difficulty of mounting expeditions for remote data gathering in later and even modern periods (think Perrine’s 1901-1908 eclipse observations which served as tests of general relativity), the fact that the Jesuits were effectively coordinating global astronomical observation campaigns almost 500 years ago was an aspect I wish Prieto would have explored
in greater depth.

By: Laszlo Taba

Laszlo Taba — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 03:56:49 +0000

Thanks for your review. I was hoping you’d address colonialism in it. I agree that Prieto’s discussion of the treatment of indigenous people is interesting. It might be my favorite part of the book. I also had the feeling that he could have had more about science in it.

Since one of your areas of focus is Latin America, I hope we have a chance to discuss the way the book presents the Jesuits. While reading, I kept having knee-jerk, negative reactions to them. I expected the worst, and I assume that’s because I don’t know much about colonization to the south of the British colonies. Reading more books like _Missionary_Scientists_ will help me fill in gaps about what I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to the discussion tomorrow giving me some short cuts to understanding colonization in Latin America.

By: Alexander Chin

Alexander Chin — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 02:31:28 +0000

Hi Kerry, I think the end of your review was very interesting, especially the comparison to Sloane and your comment on postcolonial theory. I felt that there was something missing in the sections on the conversion of the native healers and their practices. This was especially lacking in information on the nurses that aided the Jesuit healers. I think it would have been an interesting inclusion to show the perspective of the Peruvian and Chilean peoples on the healing practices of the Jesuits and, though we may not have sources for this, a comparison to the native healing practices to see what they learned. Also, when reading, I did not draw the similarity to Sloane; this connection makes sense when looking at the book through a natural history lens. But the connection that I got stuck on was between the Jesuits and Winthrop because of both used medicines for their political aims and they were both highly religious. I think that this may have been the better connection to draw because much of the book dealt more with natural history than medicine.

By: William Dunn

William Dunn — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 16:22:15 +0000

Your review notes the competing objectives of the actors in this place and time and emphasizes the ability of the Jesuit priests to adapt and to pursue their own objectives. This book provides insights into the Jesuits’ developing sense of their organizational mission, their ongoing competition with royal administrators, their efforts to understand native culture and beliefs, and their ability to develop effective administrative and theological innovations in response. This intellectual history seems to me the most valuable contribution of the book.

The book shows that in the late 16C and continuing throughout the 17C, Jesuit priests, among the most highly-educated men of the time, participated in the Republic of Letters and some had an interest in cosmography and natural history. A telling detail is the episode that Prieto describes where a local craftsman is able to create a high quality telescope from local materials. This suggests: the priest who commissioned the telescope had a fundamental understanding of the principles involved and could direct the construction; or the local craftsman had already acquired the necessary understanding, perhaps by working with another telescope. Either alternative shows that technology spread quickly.

Prieto’s history is incomplete. As you note, interesting cultural and anthropological questions are left unanswered. The competition between Galenic and shamanistic “medicine” is described from the point of view of the Jesuits. It would be interesting to analyze the struggle through the eyes of a shaman. The book only nods to the reception of the naturalist observations sent by the American Jesuits to Europe. The Jesuits enter the colonial story in media res; earlier missionaries’ (Dominicans, ?) efforts and accomplishments created expectations and possibilities that the Jesuits inherited. Still, Prieto has given us a useful intellectual history of one of the most remote parts of the early modern world.

By: Katie Kania

Katie Kania — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 00:51:00 +0000

Hi Kerry, I enjoyed reading your review of Prieto’s Missionary Scientists: Jesuit Science in Spanish South America, 1570-1810. I enjoyed this book because, as you mentioned, it goes in depth into the Catholic religious motivations in scientific inquiry. It was a different lens on religion and science that we haven’t read about in depth yet, and I appreciated having the comparison to other books this semester which focus more on science through a protestant perspective. It was fascinating to read about how the Jesuit missionaries found, for lack of a better word, “loopholes” in their efforts to understanding the flora and fauna of Latin America, as well as the medicinal and social practices of the indigenous populations. By loopholes I mean that they found a way to produce scientific knowledge, gain indigenous information, and learn about the specific uses of local practices through the guise of Christianity and spreading Christian work (or by gaining new knowledge for the sake of Christianity). One thing I would like to discuss more in class is the use of confessionals as a way the Jesuits gained secret or ritual medicinal knowledge from indigenous peoples they were attempting to evangelize. I think this again brings up the discussions we’ve had about consent in early modern science. What I found interesting about this book was the fine line that missionaries walked between helping and harming, exploitation, and knowledge exchange, etc. One aspect of the book that I think could be improved is a lack of visual aids and descriptions of the flora and fauna, the indigenous peoples, and indigenous cultures that were being discussed. Overall, an enjoyable book.