Louis and Elizabeth Agassiz traveled to Brazil in 1865 and 1866. Their journal and the results of their journey indicate that they tried to reach much more than strict specialists in Natural History. This expedition in Amazon helps to spot Louis scientific activities and reinforce the strategy of legitimization of his racial and biogeographic theories. Questions raised during the journey were not considered as merely local ones. Fish from the Amazon Basin were treated as arguments to strengthen creationist camp against evolutionists. It also defends his static biogeography, which asserts that every being has been created to live in a specific region of the globe. Their observations about Brazilian miscegenation supported the idea that races mustn’t hybridize, according to the part of North American elite that claimed for black segregation.
travels; biogeography; miscegenation