Darwin's Savages

In December 1832, Charles Darwin sailed intoTierra del Fuego, down at the tip of South America,and encountered Indians for the first time. I wouldnot have believed how entire the difference betweensavage and civilised man is, he wrote. It is greaterthan between a wild and [a] domesticated animal.But he was shocked by the war of exterminationhe witnessed in northern Patagonia, waged by thecolonising army of Buenos Aires.Darwins Savagesexplores how these experiencesinfluenced Darwins writings, as well as thejustifications for racial exterminations that othersdrew from his work. In a sweeping account ofsoldiers, missionaries, anthropologists and skullcollectingscientists, Matthew Carr traces theconnections between colonial expansionism andscientific racism, and the tragic extinction ofindigenous peoples in one of the most remote placeson Earth.Combining travelogue, history and essay, this isa compelling journey through Patagonia past andpresent, from indigenous graveyards and militarymemorials to archaeological sites and naturalhistory museums. Amid global battles for historicalmemory, culture wars over race and empire, andongoing struggles for indigenous rights, Carrchronicles the conquest of Argentinas FirstPeoplesand the ideas that made it possible.