Gobineau, Le Bon, and Spanish American historiography: El continente enfermo

Abstract

The historiography of nineteenth and twentieth century Latin America has been dominated by two strong undercurrents, the philosophical and the sociological. During the twentieth century the trend has been predominantly towards the philosophical aspect, and historians are concentrating on pursuing the "meaning" of history away from the determinism and evolutionism, while in the nineteenth century most historical interpretations were confined to sociological and evolutional theories set forth by the positivist tenets. A special aspect of positivist interpretations of Latin American history during the late period of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century has been often neglected because the ideas and theories proposed have been in quite general disrepute. The "diagnosticians," as this select group of writers became known, analyzed and interpreted the social and political realities of post-independent Latin America through the theories and influences of European socio-organicist and social psychologists. They attributed the "illness" of the continent to the racial make-up of Latin America. Men like Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Carlos Octavio Bunge, Agustin Alvarez, Manuel Ugarte, and Lucas Ayarragarray, all from Argentina, set the pace by following the racist theories set forth by Count Joseph A. de Gobineau and Gustave Le Bon. Latin .America, according to them, was peopled by "inferior," mongrelized species. These theories were followed by writers in other Latin American countries such as Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, and Central America. By concentrating on these evolutionary theories, these writers left deep scars on Latin American historiography which will be difficult to erase. This dissertation examines this special aspect of Latin American historiography dating from about 1890 to 1940, and concludes with comments on contemporary trends.