15/10/2018

Emilia and Bertha: naturalists ahead of their time.

Marcos Raposo and Marco Aurélio Crozariol

Reproduction from the IMPA Science & Mathematics blog, from O Globo, coordinated by Claudio Landim.

Last month on this blog we discussed the meaning and importance of Natural History Museums as centers for the production of knowledge about humankind and its relationship with the universe around it. Here we will talk a little about two naturalists who are behind the immense zoological and botanical collections of the National Museum.

Originally, naturalists were often confused with explorers, so broad were their interests, which generally ranged from the discovery of new areas and their riches to the detailed description of these, whether they were mere veins of gold, entire still unknown civilizations, or animals and plants yet to be described. The establishment of hypotheses and explanatory models for the natural world, as was the case with the Theory of Evolution proposed by Charles Darwin and Alfred R. Wallace, was also part of the naturalists' work.

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Because they were producers of knowledge, they played a major role in the evolution of civilization as a whole, and it was not uncommon for them to have close relationships with the high-ranking officials and rulers of different nations. Yes, rulers have been concerned with knowledge in its scientific aspect. The National Museum itself was an example of this, being closely linked to the royal family during the Empire, in the figure of Dom Pedro II, and directly linked to our Presidency during the Republic.

In this context, specifically in the first half of the 20th century, two of the most emblematic figures in Brazilian and world science emerged at the National Museum: the naturalists Emília Snethlage and Bertha Lutz. Each in their own way, both were vehicles for the transformation and evolution of science and Brazilian society as a whole.

Emilia Snethlage (1868-1929) was born in Brandenburg, north of Berlin, and, having been orphaned by her mother at the age of four, was raised by her father. As soon as she reached the appropriate age, 21, she chose to work as a governess in England, Ireland, and Germany. In the words of her future colleague Bertha Lutz, the profession of governess was a "path that stifled many brilliant minds" (see Junghans, 2008). This was explainable by the bad reputation that befell these young unmarried women at the time. Apparently, however, Emilia's free spirit led her to take from the situation what it offered best: free movement within Europe and professional socialization within circles that were otherwise exclusively male.

Highly talented in zoology and one of the first German women to earn a doctorate (Berlin, 1904), Emília Snethlage was brought to Brazil the following year by the Swiss scientist Emílio Goeldi to promote zoology at the then Museu Paraense de História Natural e Etnografia (now the Museu Emílio Goeldi). Taking over the museum's direction in 1917, she became the first woman to head a scientific museum in Latin America. She was also the first woman to describe a species of Brazilian bird and a great precursor to our ornithology. She also became famous for crossing the interfluve of the Xingu and Tapajós rivers, accompanied only by four male and three female Curuahé Indians, shortly before publishing her marvelous "Catalogue of Amazonian Birds" in 1914. Extremely determined and intelligent, during one of her field trips, observing that a wound on her finger had turned into gangrene, she immediately amputated it with a machete.
Emília was fired from the Goeldi Museum when, faced with salary cuts for her employees, she unhesitatingly diverted the animals' food from the Zoo under her care to them. This was fortunate for the National Museum, where she would later be transferred in 1922. As a traveling naturalist, she continued undertaking scientific expeditions throughout Brazil until her death at age 61 in Porto Velho, Rondônia.

Throughout her life, "Grandma," as she is affectionately called today by Brazilian ornithologists, encountered many obstacles related to living in a still misogynistic society. Facing the situation with humor, she joked that she knew she had done a good job, "a man's work," because she always received correspondence addressed to Dr. Emílio Snethlage. On the other hand, although she preferred short hair, she opted to wear long locks and feminine clothing, unsuitable for the countryside, so as not to shock the ladies of the time, especially on her trips to the interior.

Between 1922 and 1929, the year of her death, Emília lived at the National Museum alongside the São Paulo naturalist Bertha Maria Julia Lutz (1894-1976), who, although the daughter of the famous sanitarian Adolfo Lutz, always had her own unique perspective. Faced with the limitations she encountered upon returning to Brazil, Bertha reacted by using her strong theoretical knowledge and connections in high society to change not only the National Museum but also the mentality of her time. For this reason, she suffered both frontal attacks in newspapers (such as those launched by the writer Afonso H. de Lima-Barreto) and veiled attacks from male colleagues dissatisfied not only with her professional "impertinence" but also with the progressive nature of her private life.

To read the full text, visit the newspaper's website.

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