Abstract
The chapter unveils the circumstances surrounding the geological expedition to Goa in 1960 and 1961 made by the Brigade of Geological Studies of the State of India, organized by Portugal in order to survey and map colonial possessions in that continent. It is a particularly revealing case study regarding the use of new techniques and methodologies during geological fieldwork and the relations between the field and the laboratory. Questions of scientific authority as well as the instrumentalization of geology in the context of a dictatorial regime are also addressed. The geological expedition is presented as an “experimental space” where not only new aspects of geological practice but also an entire network of scientific, social and political relations are experienced and put to the test.
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Acknowledgements
I thank the editors, Marianne Klemun and Ulrike Spring, for their invitation to collaborate in this book. I thank Cláudia Castelo for sharing crucial information concerning the Brigade of Geological Studies of the State of India and for helping me with the files in the Overseas Historical Archive. I am also grateful to Professor Gaspar Soares de Carvalho for his oral testimony, to Renato Henriques, Paulo Pereira and Pedro Gomes, who made all the arrangements so I could meet him, and to Ana Carneiro who helped me with the English.
Research for this paper was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, SFRH/BPD/40065/2007.
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Mota, T.S. (2016). It Had to Be Us: Geological Practice, Scientific Authority and Politics in the Expedition to Goa (1960–1). In: Klemun, M., Spring, U. (eds) Expeditions as Experiments. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58106-8_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58106-8_11
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58105-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58106-8
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