{"title":"Annäherung an den Feind","authors":"Sylwia Werner","doi":"10.1515/scipo-2023-003","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Alexander von Humboldt’s voyage to South America (1799-1804) was an event of the century. It was accompanied by the discovery of numerous animal and plant species, but also by fascinating descriptions of landscapes, monuments and the indigenous population and their everyday life. This article presents a little-known text by Humboldt that describes a borderline experience that terrified the naturalist, namely the confrontation with the mosquitoes living on the Orinoco. With this example, Humboldt not only shows that in the case of terrible experiences, the objects of research can no longer be described neutrally, but also illustrates that empirical nature research must intertwine with economic, ecological, geopolitical, but above all intercultural and anti-colonial aspects if it wants to take complex phenomena into account.","PeriodicalId":222155,"journal":{"name":"Scientia Poetica","volume":"14 6","pages":"61 - 76"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Scientia Poetica","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1515/scipo-2023-003","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract Alexander von Humboldt’s voyage to South America (1799-1804) was an event of the century. It was accompanied by the discovery of numerous animal and plant species, but also by fascinating descriptions of landscapes, monuments and the indigenous population and their everyday life. This article presents a little-known text by Humboldt that describes a borderline experience that terrified the naturalist, namely the confrontation with the mosquitoes living on the Orinoco. With this example, Humboldt not only shows that in the case of terrible experiences, the objects of research can no longer be described neutrally, but also illustrates that empirical nature research must intertwine with economic, ecological, geopolitical, but above all intercultural and anti-colonial aspects if it wants to take complex phenomena into account.