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Escaping Darwin’s shadow: how Alfred Russel Wallace inspires Indigenous researchers

Wallace, who independently discovered the theory of evolution, relied on local knowledge to craft his seminal work on species ranges in the Amazon. Now, the region’s Indigenous scientists have taken charge of their research using this and other cross-cultural tools.
  1. Camila C. Ribas

    1. Camila C. Ribas is a research scientist at the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil.

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Dzoodzo Baniwa, a member of an Indigenous community in Brazil’s Amazonas state, has been collecting data on the region’s biodiversity for around 15 years. He lives in a remote village called Canadá on the Ayari River, a tributary of the Içana, which in turn feeds the Rio Negro, one of the main branches of the Amazon. The nearest city, São Gabriel da Cachoeira, is a three-day trip by motor boat.

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Nature 613, 24-26 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04508-4

Uma tradução deste artigo está disponível em português.

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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