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The ‘conquest of Mexico’ and the ‘patchy Anthropocene’: reinterpreting an episode in the history of the Americas from a multispecies anthropology and eco-evolutionist perspective

Dr. Francisco Vergara-Silva
This episode explores the Conquest of Mexico from a multidisciplinary perspective, focusing on Multispecies Anthropology and Eco-evolution to understand the historical events of 500 years ago in today’s American Continent, highlighting the introduction of non-native species by Europeans and their impact on indigenous ecosystems and societies. Based on work presented by Anna Tsing and colleagues, through the “Atlas Feral”, Francisco Vergara-Silva reflects on how interactions between humans and other species have shaped history and ecology. The concept of the “patchy anthropocene” is introduced to suggest that human impact is patchy and localised, with specific significant ecological consequences. Finally, the idea of “niche construction” is proposed to analyse the co-evolution and adaptation of species through time, providing a broader perspective on human influence on the environment, before and after the Conquest.
Francisco Vergara-Silva is a historian, philosopher, and sociologist of science born in Mexico City (1971). Set rather early to specialize in the life sciences, between 1990 and 2020 he has been involved in empirical research in a number of areas -from morphology, taxonomy and eco-evolutionary developmental biology (‘eco-evo-devo’) to so-called ‘DNA barcoding’, mostly in plant species- in order to better understand how theory and practice, ethics and politics are relentlessly negotiated and reconfigured in bioscientific laboratories and other spaces of ‘knowledge production about life’, such as research-oriented botanical gardens. After a lengthy period of plant specimen collection in the Lacandon rainforest, starting a few months after the 1994 uprising of the EZLN, his academic work has proceeded constantly against an anthropological background. This decision has been reflected not only in the embrace of analytical and methodological frameworks from anthropology, and in his participation in interdisciplinary research groups focused on how racism hides, morphs, and thrives in Mexico and Latin America, but also in a permanent interest in looking ethnographically at the situated communities of scientists among which he has managed to survive. In the crypto-ecosyndemic, Anthropocenic present, he chooses to stand on the insights of multispecies anthropology and related discourses, in order to go on with a few collaborative, interdisciplinary projects that still look worth pursuing.

Learning points

  • What does it mean to “pluralise the anthropos” and how does this concept apply to the study of the Anthropocene?
  • How does the “patchy Anthropocene” manifest itself and what are the ecological consequences?
  • What are “multispecies assemblages” and what is their significance for eco-evolution?
  • How can the notion of “niche construction” contribute to understanding co-evolution and species adaptation?

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