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This chapter presents one case history – the transfer of the name and virtues of ‘eagle-stones’ to Andean minerals and terebratulid brachiopods such as Clarkeia antisiensis. Eagle-stones, an ancient remedy of Asian origin, were used in early modern Europe to prevent abortion and as a charm to assist obstetric delivery. In the eighteenth century eagle-stones were the subject of what G. Baronti (Tra bambini e acque sporche Immersioni nella collezione di amuleti di Giuseppe Bellucci, Morlacchi, Perugia, 2008) calls the process of folklorization of European learned medicine, becoming a ‘superstition’ and a popular remedy of medical lore. Based on secondary bibliography and documents from the Archivo de Indias in Seville, the paper discusses the uses of eagle-stones in Spain and Spanish America in connection to the texts published, written or translated in the Iberian Peninsula (lapidaries, early modern medical books). The last section proposes clues to analyse the expansion of the trade in eagle-stones to Spanish America, to finally survey the references to ‘eagle-stones’ in Latin American popular medicine of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Eagle-stones are inscribed not only in the longue-duróéebut also in the intricate networks of commerce.

Whereas historiography of the debates on “early man in America” isolates Florentino Ameghino's ideas on human evolution from his paleontological and geological work, this paper presents Ameghino's ideas on human ancestors in regard to the controversies over the origin and dispersion of mammals. Therefore, this paper analyzes the constitution of paleontology in Argentina at the end of nineteenth century by describing, firstly, the Ameghino brothers' organization of research. By tackling this aspect I want also to discuss the place of science in late nineteenth-century Argentina. Secondly, I will sketch “Ameghino's ideas” about Patagonia as a center of distribution of mammals, the age of Patagonian strata, and the South American origin of humankind. The Ameghino brothers' logistics of fieldwork created not only the means for finding a remarkable fossil fauna but also a trap that undermined their scientific credibility. Therefore, I will focus on the problem of fieldwork in “distant” places and of scientific wandering in Patagonia. In the polemics presented here, language, transportation systems, visual representations, and technical devices were crucial elements for the creation of paleontological objects.