{"id":32919,"date":"2013-08-17T18:27:24","date_gmt":"2013-08-17T18:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=32919"},"modified":"2013-08-17T18:42:04","modified_gmt":"2013-08-17T18:42:04","slug":"empathetic-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=32919","title":{"rendered":"Empathetic eye"},"content":{"rendered":"

Empathetic eye<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ag\u00eancia FAPESP: News Agency of the Sao Paulo Research Foundation<\/a>
\n2011-06-08<\/p>\n

F\u00e1bio de Castro<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ag\u00eancia FAPESP \u2013<\/strong> In 1865, an expedition led by Swiss natural scientist Louis Agassiz<\/a> (1807-1873) of Harvard University travelled around Brazil for 15 months to study the country. Among the voluntary collectors that participated in the expedition was a 23 year old medical student, William James<\/a> (1842-1910), who would later become one of the most influential American thinkers, known mainly as one of the creators of pragmatic philosophy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Organized by professor Maria Helena Toledo Machado<\/a> of the History Department of Universidade de S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s (USP) Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences School (FFLCH), the book Brazil through the eyes of William James<\/a><\/em><\/strong> <\/em>covers\u00a0 the large volume of writing and drawings produced by the young James during the expedition. Unlike the travel logs typical of the period, the material left by James reveals a sensitive and empathetic traveler with unique perspectives on the nature and society of Brazil.<\/p>\n

The book was launched on April 7 at the USP\u2019s Maria Ant\u00f4nia University Center, during the opening of the exhibition Rastros e ra\u00e7as de Louis Agassiz: fotografia, corpo e ci\u00eancia <\/em>(Traces of Louis Agassiz: photography, body and science<\/em>), a collection of a series of photographs obtained during the expedition on Brazilian racial types…<\/p>\n

…James\u2019 perspective also significantly contrasts with the bias expressed by the expedition. Agassiz, founder of Harvard\u2019s Museum of Comparative Zoology<\/a>, intended to collect fish specimen and data on their geographic distribution in Brazil, with a view to contesting Charles Darwin\u2019s<\/a> theory of evolution<\/a>, which he opposed.<\/p>\n

During the trip \u2013 known as the Thayer Expedition because it was financed by magnate Nathaniel Thayer<\/a>-, Agassiz became interested in studying the population, taking the initiative to document Brazilian racial types through photography with a view evaluating the results of miscegenation<\/a>. The work is one of the main photographic registers of Brazil in the 19th century.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgassiz was a creationist and the scientific and racial focus of the expedition is a bit backwards. But this did not affect James\u2019 perspective. Highly sensitive, he developed what I would characterize as empathy, which would be manifested throughout his work. He shows a great capacity to understand the world from the other\u2019s perspective. Instead of the paternalistic and pious approach common among other travelers of the time, he got involved with people and managed to understand the profound differences of this unfamiliar society,\u201d affirms Machado.<\/p>\n

Miscegenation <\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the historian, the position James exhibited in his expedition diaries are reflected throughout the life of the thinker. Later, he would fight against imperialism, defend Darwinism, become a follower of relativism \u2013 which garnered much criticism \u2013 and would develop the notion of stream of consciousness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these ideas are coherent to his manner of approaching reality, manifested during his time in Brazil. In his writings, he deconstructs the exotic perspective, the incomprehensible other, the foreigner alienated from the codes of local social life,\u201d says Machado…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Empathetic eye Ag\u00eancia FAPESP: News Agency of the Sao Paulo Research Foundation 2011-06-08 F\u00e1bio de Castro Ag\u00eancia FAPESP \u2013 In 1865, an expedition led by Swiss natural scientist Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) of Harvard University travelled around Brazil for 15 months to study the country. Among the voluntary collectors that participated in the expedition was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1649,12,83,21,459,8],"tags":[15437,15436,15449,4645,15444,15447,15445,15448,15439,15446],"class_list":["post-32919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology","category-articles","category-brazil","category-latincarib","category-history","category-media-archive","tag-agencia-fapesp","tag-agencia-fapesp-news-agency-of-the-sao-paulo-research-foundation","tag-fabio-de-castro","tag-louis-agassiz","tag-maria-helena-machado","tag-maria-helena-p-t-machado","tag-maria-helena-pereira-toledo-machado","tag-maria-helena-toledo-machado","tag-sao-paulo-research-foundation","tag-william-james"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}