Fitz-Roy, Darwin and the Human Zoo in Jemmy Button by Benjamín Subercaseaux

Abstract

This article explores the subjugation of the natives of Tierra del Fuego to the mechanisms of incorporation of the European civilizing process in the 19th Century. First the explorers, then the missionaries started the geographic ascertainment of the territories and thus the ascertainment of its inhabitants, transforming the latter into an object of curiosity and study in Europe. The exposure of fueguinos in different forms, starting with kidnapping, weakened their identity and increased the doubts about their humanity. In Benjamin Subercaseaux´s novel Jemmy Button, the relationship between Fitz-Roy and Darwin is troubled because of the emergence of such situation represented by the four Fuegians that traveled aboard the Beagle.