Taxonomy and Coloniality: Decolonial perspectives on Science, Nature, and Primates in Spanish Guinea
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32991/2237-2717.2026v16i3.p461-494Keywords:
environmental history, taxonomy, primates, coloniality, ecology of knowledgesAbstract
This article critically explores the history of the scientific classification of African primates within the framework of European colonialism and proposes new interdisciplinary approaches to rethink the relationship between science and nature. Through a historical analysis of primate taxonomy, it argues that zoological nomenclature functioned as a key instrument in the colonial production of otherness and in the imposition of an exclusionary epistemology upon African ecosystems. The study examines a specific case in which the encounter between science and tropical fauna was uniquely shaped by Christian ideology and the ethnological experience of a missionary during Francoist rule in Equatorial Guinea (1936–1968). In contrast to this genealogy of epistemic domination, the article advocates for new frameworks—such as ethnoecology, ethnoprimatology, and an ecology of knowledges—that acknowledge more-than-human subjectivities and the deep ecological knowledge of African communities. This approach seeks to contribute to a more situated, plural, and ethical science in the study of nonhuman primates and human–animal relations.
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