Historiography of Biogeography in Mexico

Abstract

The study of the history of science has been of great interest and has diversified and become specialized since the last decades of the twentieth century. The research on the history of biogeography is relatively recent, as is the autonomy that this discipline has achieved in the recent past. Since the mid-twentieth century, an unprecedented scientific revolution in comparative biology took place. Systematics and biogeography were properly constituted as independent sciences. This paved the way to a series of historical works regarding biogeography. The main objectives of this chapter are to deepen into the main historiographical approaches to biogeography, and into the ways in which Mexican historians have made history of this discipline. The analysis of the discursive construct that has been locally performed over the history of biogeography can share elements to know better the circulation process of knowledge in a broader geographic context. The central histories on biogeography that have been performed in Mexico are analyzed. Throughout the history of biogeography, different schools or approaches have developed, mainly dispersalist biogeography, panbiogeography, cladistic biogeography, and phylogeography, to name the most significant ones. Within these approaches, different postures and debates have emerged. A historiographical analysis is carried out focusing on the pioneer Mexican academics interested in biogeography, in order to highlight how they have tackled the different biogeographic approaches from its history.