Skip to main contentAccessibility feedback
Dear catholic.com visitors: This website from Catholic Answers, with all its many resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. A fully independent, lay-run, 501(c)(3) ministry that receives no funding from the institutional Church, we rely entirely on the generosity of everyday people like you to keep this website going with trustworthy, fresh, and relevant content. If everyone visiting this month gave just $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.
Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.

Feliz de Azara

Spanish naturalist (1746-1811)

Click to enlarge

Azara, FINN DE.—a Spanish naturalist, b. at Barbunales in Aragon, May 18, 1746; d. 1811. He first embraced the military career as an engineer, distinguished himself in various expeditions, and rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the Spanish Army. He was appointed member of the Spanish commission sent to South America, in 1781, to settle the question of limits between the Portuguese arid Spanish colonies. He remained in South America till 1801. While there he turned his attention to the study of mammals, less as an anatomist or physiologist than as an observer of the life and habits of quadrupeds. His observations, to which he added a large number of statements obtained by hearsay, were not always favorably criticized, but today the perspicacity of Azara as a student of the life of South American mammals is generally acknowledged. He also extended his investigations to birds. Before leaving South America, he sent his brother (then Spanish Ambassador at Paris) many notes and observations of a zoological nature, which Moreau de Saint-Wry published at Paris in 1801 under the title of “Essay stir l’histoire naturelle des quadrupedes du Paraguay“. In 1802 there appeared at Madrid “Apuntamientos para la Historia natural de los cuadrdpedos del Paraguay y Rio de la Plata”. In the same year Azara published “Apuntamientos para la Historia de los pajaros del Paraguay y Rio de la Plata”. In 1809 there appeared at Paris under his name “Voyage dans l’Amerique meridionale depuis 1781 jusqu’en 1801”. In the latter work he criticizes the Jesuit methods of organizing and educating the Indians, showing that he completely failed to understand the nature of the American aborigines. Azara, while an efficient soldier and good engineer, as well as shrewd observer of animal life, was incapable of understanding the character of the Indian, and of grasping the only method by which the Indian could slowly but surely be civilized.

AD.F. BANDELIER


Did you like this content? Please help keep us ad-free

More from Catholic.com

Enjoying this content?  Please support our mission!Donate