The Great Chain of Being: The "Animal Kingdom" in the eyes of Portuguese and Portuguese American traveling naturalists (1772-1818)

• Grant number: 19/10815-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: October 15, 2019
• End date: March 17, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Leila Mezan Algranti
• Grantee: Breno Ferraz Leal Ferreira
• Supervisor: Silvia Sebastiani
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/23264-1 - The great chain of being: the "animal kingdom" in the eyes of Portuguese and Luso-American naturalists travelers (1772-1818), BP.PD

Abstract

This BEPE research project is part of a larger project that we have been developing since 2017, in which we investigate the memories, speeches, and texts related to the Animal Kingdom written by Portuguese and Portuguese American naturalists of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, which undertook "philosophical journeys" in the context of the Enlightenment. The proposal is to examine the different readings and uses of works (books, manuscripts, texts) by enlightened European naturalists and historians, such as Linnaeus, Buffon, Cuvier, and Robertson, in the writings on the Animal Kingdom of naturalists produced in the field of nature research trips in the Portuguese Empire. Our interest is in the following Portuguese and Portuguese American naturalists: Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira, João da Silva Feijó and João de Loureiro. In this BEPE project, we justify the reasons why an internship in Paris would be important by providing the possibility of advancing in research points that need completion, and by developing others that are in the beginning.