Jonathan Maslow. Footsteps in the Jungle: Adventures in the Scientifc Exploration of the American Tropics. Chicago, Ill.: Ivan R. Dee Publisher, 1996. 308 pp. $27.50, cloth, ISBN 978-1-56663-137-2.

Reviewed by Stuart McCook

Published on H-LatAm (February, 1997)

Historians are beginning to explore the envi‐ works, he has sensitively shown how the work of ronmental history of Latin America. As they do so, naturalists can provide insights into some of Latin they will need to pay more attention to the writ‐ America's most pressing political, economic, and ings of the naturalists, past and present, who have ecological problems. He aptly describes his earlier studied the region. Scientifc travel narratives, book, Bird of Life, Bird of Death, as a work of "po‐ monographs, and papers all reveal changing land‐ litical ornithology," where he connects the declin‐ scapes and changing attitudes toward nature. Nat‐ ing Quetzal populations with some of the worst uralists were uniquely well placed and well political changes there. equipped to understand and analyze the changes In Footsteps in the Jungle, Maslow recounts they saw. the lives of thirteen famous and not-so-famous ex‐ Although poor in many other respects, tropi‐ plorers of the American Tropics. Alexander von cal Latin America contains a wealth of scientifc Humboldt and Charles Darwin are the best- treasures. The mythical city of El Dorado was nev‐ known fgures. Charles Waterton, Thomas Belt, er found, but the jungles, rivers, and mountain‐ Archie Carr, Alexander Skutch, and Daniel Janzen sides of Latin America have revealed a treasure- are more likely only known to students of the re‐ trove for scientists. Getting at this wealth, howev‐ gion, or to other scientists. These scientists, argues er, has been a challenge. Footsteps in the Jungle Maslow, "forged a new way of meeting the un‐ tells the story of "thirteen of the luckiest men and known" (p. 7). Beginning with Humboldt, the jun‐ women of all time: the explorers who frst gle became the object of travel, rather than simply mapped the tropical regions of the Americas and an obstacle to it. Jungles "have become part of hu‐ discovered the glorious biological orgy that is na‐ manity's patrimony, an important symbol of the ture in the tropics" (p. 3). planetary unity in the long twilight struggle to Maslow is a journalist and naturalist who has preserve a healthy global environment" (p. 8). His travelled extensively in South America. In earlier method in these mini-biographies is to "tag along H-Net Reviews into the feld, following the explorers on their for his claim that he had ridden on the back of a voyages and expeditions, ofering a companion ferocious cayman. Maslow tells us that Waterton guide to their discoveries and a context to their "was [also] an outstanding feld naturalist... [who] imaginative quests" (p. 8). could enter into the minds of animals and fathom Humboldt, Darwin, and Wallace, not only their intentions and understand their adaptations gave us some of the early comprehensive invento‐ from excellent frsthand knowledge of their actu‐ ries of tropical Latin America, but also were theo‐ al behavior" (p. 47). William Henry Hudson was rists of global importance. Humboldt and Aime born in Argentina of British parents, and grew up Bonpland explored much of upper South America with an almost animistic relationship with the between 1799 and 1804. They brought with them pampa. In the 1870s he moved to England where, trunks full of the latest scientifc instruments, and after a number of years, he emerged as a promi‐ used them to make measurements of unparalleled nent ornithologist and writer. Indeed, he is proba‐ precision. They amassed huge collections of bly better remembered today for his fction than plants and animals for classifcation and analysis. he is for his natural studies. His novel Green Man‐ On behalf of the King of Spain, they wrote reports sions typifes the romantic view of tropical na‐ on the economic history of New Spain and Cuba. ture. In contrast to the eccentric Waterton and the Humboldt's success inspired many of the trav‐ romantic Hudson, Henry Walter Bates and ellers who followed him to the New World, includ‐ Thomas Belt were more sober naturalists and col‐ ing the young Charles Darwin. Darwin's travels lectors. Bates collected alongside Wallace in the through Brazil, Argentina, Patagonia, and the Amazon. Belt, an engineer, surveyed parts of Galapagos in the 1830s gave him insights that Nicaragua between 1868 and 1872, leaving a de‐ were a direct inspiration for the Origin of Species. tailed study of Nicaragua's nature and society. Maslow argues that "Although the ideas originat‐ Two chapters deal with people who were not, ed in Europe, it was South America that was the strictly speaking, naturalists. One describes the crucible of Darwin's theory" (p. 86). Alfred Russel archaeologists and explorers John Lloyd Stephens Wallace, the co-discoverer of natural selection, and Frederick Catherwood, and the other the also had experience in the neo-tropics. Wallace painter and explorer Margaret Mee. Stephens was was an Englishman from a working-class back‐ an American archaeologist, and his travelling ground, who fnanced his passion for natural his‐ companion Catherwood was an English architect tory collecting by selling parts of his collection. In and artist. In the 1830s, they travelled to the Yu‐ the late 1840s, he made his frst major collecting catan Peninsula and to Guatemala to study Maya expedition up the Amazon with Henry Walter ruins. Catherwood's exquisitely detailed drawings Bates. His experiences in South America and later and Stephens' narrative (Incidents of Travel in in Asia led him independently to formulate a the‐ Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan), "re‐ ory of evolution by natural selection. turned the Maya to history" (p. 156). Margaret Other naturalists, such as Charles Waterton, Mee was a British expatriate living in Brazil. Be‐ Henry Walter Bates, Thomas Belt, and William ginning in 1956, she made ffteen expeditions to Henry Hudson, were less interested in grand theo‐ Amazonia to paint the fora of the Amazon. Her ry. Instead, they devoted themselves to the study paintings and her writings have captured the of specifc places. Waterton was a British eccen‐ beauty and diversity of the Amazonian fora, and tric, whose explorations of British Guyana in the lament the gradual destruction of the rainforest. early nineteenth century sometimes smacked of The most powerful biographies in this collec‐ the fantastic. He was widely ridiculed in England tion deal with the naturalists of the twentieth cen‐

2 H-Net Reviews tury, such as William Beebe, Alexander Skutch, under the impulse of obsession. The urge to Archie Carr, and Daniel Janzen. These men are as amass an ever greater number, or a complete set, much environmentalists as they are naturalists, of some objects can take a powerful hold of the and they have done great work in drawing atten‐ human soul" (p. 113). He discusses in some detail tion to ecological crises in the region. William the animism of W. H. Hudson, Beebe's refections Beebe was one of the early explorers of the under‐ on the organic world as "an inexhaustible source sea world of coral reefs in the Caribbean. In the of spiritual and esthetic delight" (p. 178), and frst half of this century, he did much to promote Alexander Skutch's analysis of the ways in which popular understanding of tropical nature through humans and animals relate to one another. a series of books. Maslow describes Archie Carr as Parallel to Maslow's promotion of a romantic "one of the founders of conservation biology." vision of science and nature is a lament for the Carr was particularly interested in the migration destruction of that same nature. For example: patterns of sea turtles in the Caribbean. In the "The rich tropical ecosystems Humboldt frst rec‐ 1950s, he began a project of tagging turtles in or‐ ognized are being wantonly destroyed to proft der to understand what happened during the "lost cattle, timber, and other extractive industries" (p. year" after the turtle hatchlings returned to the 31). As the book comes to deal with more recent sea. Later in life, Carr also began to dedicate him‐ fgures, this lament become more prominent both self to the preservation of the turtles' habitat, for Maslow and for the naturalists he writes which was being increasingly threatened by pol‐ about. The destruction of the remaining pieces of lution, hunters, and fshermen. Alexander Skutch wilderness are of central concern to Beebe, Carr, is an ornithologist who lives and works in the re‐ Mee, Skutch, and Janzen. In describing Janzen's mote cordillera of southern Costa Rica. He has projects, Maslow also reveals his own project: done detailed studies of bird behavior and nesting "Janzen has learned that you cannot salvage tropi‐ patterns. Daniel Janzen, a naturalist at the Univer‐ cal rainforests only for scientifc and commercial sity of Pennsylvania, has for the past thirty years reasons. You must sensitize people of the North been doing a detailed study of the ecosystems of and South to the great living classrooms of nature. the Guanacaste pensinsula in Costa Rica. His sci‐ You must tell natural history stories that add ence goes one step farther than that of his prede‐ meaning to their lives" (p. 284). The stories that cessors. He seeks to rebuild ecosystems that have Maslow tells here pursue that same goal. been destroyed, to speed up the process of natural Footsteps in the Jungle makes a passionate regrowth. Conservation in this case no longer sim‐ and ultimately successful case for why we should ply consists of preservation, but also of recon‐ be interested in preventing the further destruc‐ struction. tion of tropical nature, but it is less successful as a Footsteps in the Jungle does not seek to be a work of history. It lacks the usual scholarly appa‐ scholarly history of the exploration of the tropics ratus of footnotes, although since Maslow relies in the New World. Maslow hopes that "such feld almost exclusively on the original narratives, science as the tropical explorers practiced on the most passages should not be too difcult to track hoof rouses the reader's imaginative juices and down. kindles dreaming--especially that romantic enthu‐ A more serious problem, even for a book that siasm for tropical adventures that readers can does not pretend to be a scholarly work, is embark upon frst by proxy, perhaps later in reali‐ Maslow's portrayal of the historical development ty" (p. 8). This romantic vision of feld science per‐ of the sciences in the New World. In insisting that vades the book. Of Henry Walter Bates, Maslow "Only Humboldt had no one to infuence him: he writes that "the true collector is ... also operating

3 H-Net Reviews was the true discoverer of America" (p. 7), Maslow ers left valuable accounts of their travels in perpetuates a kind of black legend about science British Guyana, which have since been translated in colonial Latin America. Maslow argues that into English. French explorers also played an im‐ during the two and a half centuries after the ar‐ portant role. Auguste Saint-Hilaire's several ac‐ rival of Columbus, the Spaniards and Portuguese counts of his travels and researches in Brazil have made no eforts to study nature in the new world much valuable biological and ecological informa‐ systematically. This is not even approximately tion. Even some prominent American naturalists true. By 1569, Monardes had published a natural are missing from his story. Most signifcant is history of the medicinal plants of the New World. Marston Bates, who lived for many years in Francisco Hernandez undertook botanical explo‐ Colombia, and whose Where Winter Never Comes: rations of Mexico between 1571 and 1577. In the A Study of Man and Nature in the Tropics ex‐ late sixteenth century Oviedo and Acosta pub‐ plores the issues that are at the very heart of lished their natural histories of the New World. Maslow's project. Even when the Spanish colonial government Footsteps in the Jungle succeeds admirably in ceased publishing accounts of the botany of the its stated purpose of awakening interest in the New World, on the ground that they were state se‐ study of the tropics. It is less successful as a histo‐ crets, collecting continued. Early in the eighteenth ry of the scientifc exploration of the tropics. The century, Joseph de Jussieu collected in the Andes strongest biographies in this collection are those and the Amazon basin as part of La Condamine that deal with post-World War Two naturalists, expedition to Peru. Charles III sponsored major whose interests most closely parallel Maslow's scientifc exploring expeditions to the Peru, New own. Historians who are interested in pursuing Granada, and New Spain in the late eighteenth the history of the environmental sciences in Latin century. These expeditions trained some of Latin America topic further should consult some of the America's most prominent scientists of the late excellent historical literature on this subject, list‐ eighteenth century, most famously Jose Celestino ed below. For historians, Maslow's most important Mutis (1732-1808). Humboldt himself recognized and original contribution is to stress the impor‐ the value of scientifc research in Latin America, tance of feld scientists as central to our under‐ and depended on it heavily. Unfortunately, Latin standing of the profound environmental changes America's burgeoning scientifc community was taking place in Latin America, both past and largely destroyed during the wars of indepen‐ present. As historians begin to write the environ‐ dence in the early nineteenth century. Only in the mental history of Latin America, they will have to twentieth century has Latin America's research rely heavily on the works of these scientists. community begun to grow signifcantly once Selected Bibliography again. The Spaniards, Portuguese, and Latin Bates, Marston. Where Winter Never Comes: Americans studied nature much more systemati‐ A Study of Man and Nature in the Tropics. New cally and scientifcally than Maslow admits. York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952. Maslow's criteria for selecting the subjects of Bowler, Peter J. The Norton History of the En‐ his biographies are also unclear. Apart from Hum‐ vironmental Sciences. New York: W.W. Norton & boldt, all of Maslow's subjects are either British or Company, 1992. American. This selection hides the central impor‐ tance of German explorers and naturalists in Goodman, Edward J. The Explorers of South opening the neotropics to science, particularly be‐ America. New York: Macmillan, 1972. fore the First World War. The Schomburgk broth‐

4 H-Net Reviews

Lafuente, A., A. Elena, and M.L. Ortega, eds. Mundalizacion de la Ciencia y Cultura Nacional. Madrid: Doce Calles, 1992. Maslow, Jonathan. Bird of Life, Bird of Death: A Naturalist's Journey Through a Land of Politi‐ cal Turmoil. London: Viking, 1986. Puerto Sarmiento, Francisco Javier. La Ilusion Quebrada: Botanica, Sanidad, y Politica Cientifca en la Espana Ilustrada. Madrid: CSIC, 1988. Steele, Arthur Robert. Flowers for the King: The Expedition of Ruiz and Pavon and the Flora of Peru. Durham: Duke University Press, 1964. Texera Arnal, Yolanda. La Exploracion Botan‐ ica en Venezuela, 1754-1950. Caracas: Fondo Edito‐ rial Acta Cientifca Venezolana, 1991. Verdoorn, Frans. Plants and Plant Science in Latin America. Waltham, Mass.: Chronica Botani‐ ca, 1945. Copyright (c) 1997 by H-Net, all rights re‐ served. This work may be copied for non-proft educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ thor and the list. For other permissions, please contact H-Net at [email protected].

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-latam

Citation: Stuart McCook. Review of Maslow, Jonathan. Footsteps in the Jungle: Adventures in the Scientifc Exploration of the American Tropics. H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. February, 1997.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=859

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

5