Darwin and The Curious Case of Jemmy Button - Nkoz Photo

Darwin and The Curious Case of Jemmy Button - Nkoz Photo

While Charles Darwin’s voyage of discovery aboard the Beagle helped spur on the naturalist’s later theory of evolution, his 1832-1835 diary from South America sometimes makes for uncomfortable reading.  In Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago located at the southern tip of South America, young Darwin encountered the indigenous “other,” who the naturalist referred to as “savages,” “barbarians,” “miserable,” and “worthless vagabonds.”  Though such com…